Easy homemade marinara sauce recipe

I think everyone can agree homemade is always best!? this ESPECIALLY applies to this easy homemade marinara sauce recipe, which tastes much better than what you can get at the grocery store. I wish I can attach the smell of homemade marinara sauce as it roasts in the oven! When I make this recipe, I imagine this is what Italy smells and tastes like. This recipe uses plump garden tomatoes and fresh herbs…yes ladies and gentlemen, fresh herbs! non of that dried storebought herbs. 

This easy homemade marinara sauce recipe is created using fresh tomatoes and aromatic herbs like fresh basil, thyme, oregano, fresh garlic, and onions. Then it’s roasted in the oven to create a thick, irresistible low-sodium vegan marinara sauce. By making your own marinara sauce, you can use simple ingredients that are of good quality, but also you get to control what goes in it! there are no unnecessary added sugars and added salt as store-bought pasta sauce has. AND no hidden dirty ingredients here…..only the hidden onions that picky eaters cant see 😉

DO YOU HAVE AN ABUNDANT AMOUNT OF GARDEN TOMATOES?

There are so many different ways to preserve tomatoes. One of my favorite ways is to can homemade pizza sauce and marinara! This year I planted 21 tomato plants…incidentally. Every year when spring comes around I get so excited to plant my garden, I always go overboard! Every winter when I plan my garden, I tell myself “Control your self Liza!” then every spring I do the opposite.

​Make sure to save this easy recipe to your Pinterest!

Canning is an amazing way to preserve all that harvest that’s coming in. 

All your hard work is saved in a little jar of goodness. I was raised around canning. My mom canned EVERYTHING. Once I got married my husband moved us nearly 2,000 miles away from my mother. Then my husband and I bought a farmhouse and I quickly had to learn how to homestead. I planted my first garden in 2020 during a pandemic. I thought it would be a disaster. The soil here was so terrible, I couldn’t even cultivate the ground. I dug a deep enough hole in the ground and planted my first tomatoes. Not going to lie. I was so scared nothing will survive on that ground. But sure enough, God blessed us with an amazing harvest that year! Since then I am on a gardening and canning kick! This is a great recipe to preserve your hard work!

TIPS

1. Use fresh tomatoes- garden tomatoes are best. If you don’t have a garden most farmer’s markets sell some, this is great to support local farmers.
2. It is best to use fresh herbs- this gives deeper flavor to the marinara sauce
3. Keep an eye on the tomatoes while they are roasting, every oven is different. You don’t want them to burn

TOOLS

Emersion blender or a food processor

Roasting pan

knife and cutting board

16oz jars with lids

Canning pot

Jar lifter

INGREDIENTS

• 11 pounds tomatoes
• 2 onions
• 2 heads garlic – try to not use garlic powder for this recipe
• 1 tablespoon salt- this is a low sodium marinara sauce. This recipe makes a big batch of marinara so you will get little salt in every jar
• 1/4 cup olive oil 
• 1 long sprig of basil or 1 cup not packed fresh basil- if you use dried herbs I can’t promise you will get the same results 
• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme (1 tbl packed)
• 2 sprigs of fresh oregano (1 tbl packed)
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar- if you do not have it you can substitute it with red wine vinegar
• 1 cup brown sugar- or you can use any sugar 
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

As the tomatoes are baking in the oven, the beautiful aroma fills the house of basil and garlic. I close my eyes as I pretend I’m sitting in a pizzeria somewhere in Italy…then I hear my kids screaming in the background. And I’m quickly pulled back into reality. But still! every time I’m making this easy homemade marinara sauce recipe, it brings me joy!

Tomatoes are the heart and soul of Italian cuisine. With its deep red color and luscious, succulent sweetness, biting into one of these beauties is unlike any experience you ever had. Today, Italy boasts some of the world’s most cherished heirloom tomato varieties, lovingly tended to by generations of Italian farmers. 

What variety of tomatoes can you use?

You don’t need to use fancy Italian tomatoes for this recipe, I used a combination of Amish paste and a few heirloom tomatoes. Here is a list of a variety of tomatoes you can use, although you can use any tomatoes you can get your hands on.

1. San Marzano
2. Cuore di Bue
3. Costoluto Fiorentino and Genovese
4. Corbarino
5. Regina
6. Big boy
7. Amish paste
8. Early girl
9. ​Roma tomatoes

STEP-BY-STEP RECIPE FOR HOMEMADE MARINARA SAUCE 

This recipe is easy to make! All you have to do is throw all the fresh ingredients into a roasting pan and let the oven do the work. After it is done roasting, blend it with an emersion blender and you have got yourself some fragrant and delicious homemade marinara sauce. This recipe makes a large batch of marinara sauce. 

LET’S GET STARTED!

I do not take the skins of the tomatoes I use, for me it is not worth the extra step especially since I will be blending the sauce. I can hardly taste or see the skin after it’s blended. If you want to do this step please feel free to do so! Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Cut a shallow X on the bottom of the tomato. Place the tomato carefully into the boiling water and simmer for one minute. Remove the tomato and place in the ice bath. When cool enough to handle, peel the skin; it should remove very easily, coming off section by section.

Quart all of your tomatoes and add them directly into a large roasting pan or a large pot that’s oven safe.

Peel the garlic and onion, give them a rough chop then add them to the roasting pan

Add the fresh herbs then drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Add the salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 400F

Mix everything in the roasting pan uncovered. Bake in the oven at 400F for 2 hours (Keep an eye on the tomatoes while they are roasting, every oven is different. You don’t want them to burn)

Take the pan out of the oven,( use oven mitts) then transfer the tomato’s into a pot, use an emersion blender to blend the sauce till it’s smooth. If you do not have an emersion blender you can use a blender as well. 

Once the sauce is smooth and has the consistency of tomato puree, place the pot on the stove and bring it to a boil, turn the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Be careful the sauce may splatter. Taste, and add salt or black pepper if more is needed.

Sterilize the jars and lids

While to marinara sauce is simmering, sanitize the jars and lids by either boiling them or placing dry jars into the microwave for 2 minutes. The lids HAVE to be boiled. Do not place them in the microwave!

Transfer the sauce while it is still hot into the jar, leaving some headspace. Work carefully- the jars will be hot.

Clean the rims of the jar with a paper towel dipped in vinegar. Then  close the jars finger tight with the lids

Fill the canning pot with water and bring it to a simmer, then place the closed jars into the water, making sure the jars are more than halfway covered by water. Boil for 10 minutes.

Using a jar lifter, take the jar out of the canning pot onto a towel on the countertop, tighten the lid, then place it upside down on the towel. Flip the can away from your face. Let the jar cool down completely before you turn it over.

And the homemade sauce using natural ingredients is done! enjoy this delicious easy homemade marinara sauce over zucchini noodles, homemade pasta noodles, or in lasagna! 

Store-bought sauces don’t even come close to this recipe! You can serve this to your family in so many recipes! One of my favorite recipes to use homemade low sodium tomato sauce is in homemade lasagna!

But also, we use marinara as a dipping sauce to go with a sourdough cheesy pull-apart bread!

How long does easy homemade marinara sauce last?

if canned properly it is shelf stable for a year.