Easy Homemade Marinara

I don’t really care for jarred pasta sauce, but it’s great to have around in a pinch! When you can, a little planning and some pantry staples makes homemade marinara an easy meal!

This is not what I would describe as a sweet marinara – although the carrot is intended as a stand-in for adding granulated sugar. Feel free to adjust to your tastes, though, as I like acidic food! I’d suggest serving this with pasta, a protein, and a light salad. Might I suggest my orange fennel salad?

There’s a longer simmer of 2.5 hours that makes this homemade marinara a great set-it and (mostly) forget it weekend recipe. I like the thicker marinara this longer simmer produces. I often save this slightly long cook time for weekends and use it in meals all week. Many marinara recipes do not simmer this long – more like an hour or two. If you’d prefer to reduce the cooking time for a more weeknight-approachable version, I have an alternative approach suggested in the substitutions section below that you can try out.

Preparation & Photos

Cut the onion in half. Peel, trim, and smash the garlic cloves. Finely dice the carrot to ensure it softens well during cooking.

Combine the tomatoes, onion halves, garlic, diced carrot, bay leaves, oregano, salt, and olive oil in a large sauté pan. Stir to mix the ingredients and smash some of the tomatoes.

Bring the mixture to a boil, drop to a simmer, and allow it to simmer uncovered with occasional stirring for 2.5 hours. Tomatoes can be broken down with a spoon or spatula over the simmering time.

At the conclusion of the cook time, or when the sauce has reached your desired consistency, remove the bay leaves and onion halves and discard them.

Add salt and sugar to taste. Enjoy!

Substitutions

What type of pan to use?

I’ve used a sauté pan and a saucepan for this recipe. The cook time estimate is based on using a sauté pan.

Due to the wider surface area, the sauce reduces much faster. In a saucepan, I’ve cooked this down for as long as four hours. Please keep your pan selection in mind before starting!

Suggestion for shortening cook time

If you’d like to make this homemade marinara more weeknight-friendly, there’s some changes you could try, although I want to be clear I haven’t tested this thoroughly. Make sure you use a sauté pan.

• Quarter the onion instead of splitting it in half.
• If you do not like large chunks of garlic (which won’t cook down as well with a shorter simmer), you can sliver or mince the garlic cloves.
• Cut the carrots very finely or omit them entirely and replace with granulated sugar to taste.
• Simmer uncovered for an hour and a half or longer. Remove the onion chunks and the bay leaves.
• Add salt and sugar to taste. Add a small amount (Say ¼ tsp) at a time, taste, and adjust as desired.

Please note that your sauce will likely not be as thick as what is pictured if you use this approach.

Carrots

I recommend finely dicing these so the texture is not distracting. You can omit them or add more if you want a sweeter sauce. Note that you might want to add sugar if you leave out the carrots – especially if you don’t like an acidic tomato sauce.

Spices and olive oil

Want more olive oil? Feel free to add it!

You can substitute basil for oregano if you like! If you have fresh herbs, you can use them here, but remember that fresh basil will lose potency very quickly with cooking. You will want to add it towards the end of the cook time, or use dried basil instead. My dad loves fennel seeds in his pasta sauce, so that’d be something different to try.

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