Quick and Easy Marinara Sauce
My Italian roots make me love a good, slow-cooked tomato sauce with fresh herbs that simmers for hours, but sometimes you need a great version that’s also quick. This quick and easy marinara sauce makes use of a lot of staple pantry items with very little prep and comes together in 30minutes or less.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 bay leaves
Directions
- Place the saucepan over medium heat and add the olive oil. While it’s heating up, dice the onion and mince the garlic. When the olive oil is ready, add the diced onion and stir to coat in the oil. Cook, stirring occasionally until softened and translucent, but before it turns brown, about 6-7 minutes.
- Add the minced garlic and the oregano, basil, black pepper and crushed red pepper and stir to combine. Cook until fragrant, about a minute more.
- Pour in the can of crushed tomato and stir to combine with the olive oil. The sauce will look very oily at first, just keep stirring constantly for a minute or two until it begins to smooth out, then add the rest of the ingredients. Let it simmer and stir frequently until well combined.
- Taste the sauce and add more salt or sugar if needed (I normally use about 2 teaspoons of each). If you’re happy with it, cover the pot and turn the heat to low. Cook, stirring occasionally for another 20 minutes or so. Then your sauce is ready for the recipe you’re using it in.
Equipment Used
- Ninja Cookware
Notes
1) I prefer crushed tomatoes for this recipe because it makes a smooth sauce in the end. The stirring and heating will tone down the chunky parts of tomato. If you use tomato sauce instead, it can get too thinned out from the cooking. You can also use whole peeled tomatoes as well, but that does add to the cooking time and amount of work to get it looking like the crushed tomato already does.
2)In the ingredients I mention 1 teaspoon of both salt and sugar, but in the directions, I mention I normally use about 2 of each. Originally written, I listed the 2 teaspoons in the ingredients list, but wanted to give people more leeway of adjusting how much of each they can use in their diets. When you taste the sauce before turning it to a low simmer, take note of the flavor. If it seems slightly bland or bitter, add more salt. If it tastes really “tomato-y” or acidic, add more sugar. You can also add more crushed red pepper or black pepper if you like a bit more bite to your sauce (heat).
Nutrition
Serving: 1cupCalories: 278kcalCarbohydrates: 27gProtein: 5gFat: 19gSaturated Fat: 3gSodium: 1172mgPotassium: 919mgFiber: 6gSugar: 15gCalcium: 119mgIron: 4mg
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