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Best Italian Marinara Sauce Recipe

How to make the best, authentic Italian Marinara Sauce recipe from scratch, with organic San Marzano tomatoes, garlic and fresh basil. Video Below!

The best authentic Italian Marinara Sauce with Basil and Garlic in a Red Pot.

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Easy, chunky, creamy, rustic, hearty, flavorful marinara sauce or as known in America “Sunday Gravy”, is made at home with a few ingredients and a little patience. This is so good you’ll never be able to buy it in a jar. Gotta make your own kids!

The secret to the classic Italian sauce, lies in slowly simmering the tomatoes with onion, basil and garlic until thick and reduced and the natural sugars have concentrated their flavors. So thick you can literally use it as a pizza sauce as I do of course.

There is no heavy cream, no wine and no anchovies in an authentic marinara sauce.

The Best Marinara Sauce with Basil and Garlic, Classic Italian!

It is a simple vegan and vegetarian sauce that you can serve with bucatini, spaghetti and ricotta meatballs, clams and mussels, shrimp, chicken parmesan, ricotta gnocchi, peppercorn steak, mushrooms, eggplant, ravioli, veggie lasagna or whatever your favorite pasta is. Even perfect for dipping your cheese sticks!

How to thicken marinara sauce ?

Continue cooking on low flame until most of the water evaporates and the sauce / gravy has thickened to your liking. Careful not to burn it though.

Rustic Marinara Sauce with Basil, Garlic and Oregano next to spaghetti pasta.

Italian Marinara Sauce
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Best Italian Marinara Sauce Recipe

How to make the best, authentic Italian Marinara Sauce recipe from scratch, with organic San Marzano tomatoes, garlic and fresh basil. 
Course Main
Cuisine Italian
Keyword sauce, tomato sauce, Vegan
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Servings 6 people
Calories 753kcal
Author Florentina

Ingredients

  • 2 X 28 oz cans San Marzano Tomatoes
  • 1/2 yellow onion -diced
  • 8 cloves garlic -minced
  • 1 leaf bay
  • 4 sprigs basil
  • 1/3 c fresh basil leaves - sliced or torn
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 pinch sea salt ( or to your taste)

Instructions

  • Heat a heavy bottom large pot on medium low flame. Add a lug of olive oil and the diced onion with a pinch of sea salt. Cook for about 10 minutes until traslucent taking good care not to burn it.
  • Stir in the minced garlic and let it infuse the oil for about 30 seconds.
  • Use your hands and crush the tomatoes as you add them to the pot with the onion and garlic. Rustic chunks are what we are after.
  • Add the bay leaf and the 4 sprigs of basil then bring everything to a gentle simmer. Partially cover with a lid and cook down until reduced and thick to your liking. About an hour or so. Stir a few times making sure the sugars from the tomatoes don’t stick to the bottom.
  • After the sauce has reduced season to taste with the sea salt. Discard the bay leaf and basil sprigs.
  • Finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and the reserved fresh basil. Serve with your favorite pasta to transfer to jars and refrigerate up to one week.

Nutrition

Calories: 753kcal | Carbohydrates: 152g | Protein: 34g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 2727mg | Potassium: 6051mg | Fiber: 39g | Sugar: 91g | Vitamin A: 4500IU | Vitamin C: 191.2mg | Calcium: 710mg | Iron: 26.9mg

You’ll Also Love:

Arrabiata Sauce

Arrabiata Sauce

Creamy San Marzano Tomato Soup Recipe

San Marzano Tomato Soup

Red Bowl of Spaghetti in Puttanesca Sauce

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

Filed Under: Dinners, Gluten Free, Tomato, Vegan, Vegetarian

About Florentina

Hi, I'm Florentina, the voice behind the wholesome recipes you find in this journal. But I'm not alone, I'm really just channeling the Man in the Photo, one recipe at a time! Thank you for joining me in my quest for the art of simple, rustic living, trying to capture the raw beauty of organic food & life through the lens of my Iphone and camera.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. yolanda hernandez

    December 30, 2017 at 10:15 pm

    5 stars
    This was delicious thank you

    Reply
  2. Ali

    May 4, 2018 at 3:49 am

    5 stars
    Tried this recipe a couple of weeks ago and it turned out great! I froze most of it in 350ml glass clip jars to bring out as needed and each time the family love it. Just making up my second batch!

    Reply
  3. Peggy

    June 21, 2018 at 3:21 am

    I’d like to substitute fresh Roma tomatoes. How many should I add?
    Thank you

    Reply
    • Florentina

      June 26, 2018 at 11:56 am

      Hi Peggy, this recipe needs those San Marzano canned tomatoes, using a fresh Roma tomato variety will give you a different result. You’ll probably need about 4 lb or so.

      Reply
  4. Kellie

    August 16, 2018 at 1:21 pm

    Hi! I’m trying this now for the first time. I’m a little confused on what to do with the 1/3 cup torn basil. Please advise and thank you.

    Reply
    • Florentina

      September 5, 2018 at 1:49 pm

      Just add it in at the very end of cooking.

      Reply
  5. Patty

    January 1, 2019 at 2:48 pm

    5 stars
    Absolutely loved this sauce. The certified San Marzanio tomatoes do bring the game to this sauce.. I made this with your recipe of ricotta meatballs. They melt I need your mouth. Excellent thank you.

    Reply
  6. Erin

    January 25, 2019 at 1:30 pm

    Soooo great! I added about 1.5 cups amaranth in the last 20 minutes to help thicken (had some in my cupboard I’ve been trying to use up).
    Also, added the basil leaves at the beginning tather than at the end and in place of the sprigs (got confused) but I love how it turned out.

    Reply
  7. Candace

    March 5, 2019 at 12:07 pm

    5 stars
    Making this now…it looks like you used crushed red pepper flakes too? I’m assuming this also is measured to taste? Looks delish! I’m rating it before eating dinner because I’ve been tasting

    Reply
  8. Sura

    March 30, 2019 at 10:20 pm

    So easy and so tasty! I freeze it into ice cubes to serve with my pasta for a couple of months a la Trader Joe’s frozen pastas. Thank you!

    Reply
  9. Joyce Wilkie

    May 28, 2019 at 9:08 am

    Is this sauce not got chilli in it as all the sauces I’ve had in the UK are medium hot ?????

    Reply
    • Florentina

      June 29, 2019 at 12:17 pm

      The arrabiata sauce has chili, so if you add it to this you’ll make an arrabiata 🙂

      Reply
  10. Loni

    June 27, 2019 at 6:16 pm

    It doesn’t look like we add the liquid from the canned tomatoes. Is there something else the liquid can be used for instead of throwing it away?

    Reply
    • Florentina

      June 29, 2019 at 12:11 pm

      Yes I added all the liquid and reduced it all down into a thick sauce.

      Reply
      • Melissa

        August 5, 2020 at 2:10 pm

        Just made this sauce and it was great when I tried it before adding the extra olive oil and the basil at the end. Personally I felt the drizzle of olive oil ruined the flavor of the sauce. Be careful or leave it out!

        Reply
  11. Leilani Anderson

    August 13, 2019 at 7:25 pm

    Finally an amazing homemade sauce that my whole family likes. My 11 year old is requesting this every week. He did ask for me to puree it since he didn’t like that it separates (which I don’t mind)… so I did it with my immersion blender and it was delicious!!! Thank you for this one!!

    Reply
  12. Cathy Meyer

    August 31, 2019 at 1:28 pm

    Can I use the crushed San Marzano tomatoes if they make them? Can Ricotta meatballs be frozen?

    Reply
    • Florentina

      September 4, 2019 at 8:41 am

      Yes you can!

      Reply
  13. Gaby

    October 21, 2019 at 11:00 am

    Hey! This is a really nice recipe and i would like to try it out, but can i use fresh tomatoes instead? And if i do, do i only have to chop them or do i have to do something else?

    Reply
    • Florentina

      October 23, 2019 at 11:06 am

      Hey Gaby, you could use fresh tomatoes if you have the sweet San Marzano variety. Make sure to blanch them first before making the sauce.

      Reply
  14. David Stowell

    December 6, 2019 at 1:28 pm

    5 stars
    Produces a lovely mellow Tuscan Marinara. I am going to use some to make Neopolitan Pizza Margherita using Vegan Mozzarella from Miyoko’s and fresh Basil. Dough is rising now which I made using Spelt (farro) flour and Biga. I am hungry just typing this and ready to open the Brunello. Thank you Florentina!

    Reply
  15. Danny Melendez

    January 5, 2020 at 12:36 pm

    5 stars
    Your recipe is FANTASTIC! My entire family loved it and will add it to our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. For many years I have made our Christmas Eve dinner, Seafood Marinara. I have tried several different recipes over the years, however your recipe is by far the best. Thank you for sharing!!

    Reply
    • Florentina

      January 13, 2020 at 9:38 am

      Thank you so much, i am beyond happy that you all loved and enjoyed it! ~ Florentina

      Reply
  16. Anna

    February 14, 2020 at 2:19 pm

    Currently letting my sauce thicken up, thought I’d see if maybe you can answer this before it’s done, my husband says it’s a little on the sweet side, anything I can do to make it less sweet? I dont want to keep adding too much salt

    Reply
    • Florentina

      February 17, 2020 at 1:21 pm

      Hi Anna, is the sauce sweet because the tomatoes were sweet or did you add sugar by any chance ? In any case for the future you can correct that with a little bit of vinegar and bring back some of the acidity.

      Reply
  17. Jo Ann

    March 29, 2020 at 4:36 pm

    753 Calories for what portion? That sounds like a lot of calories! This sounds wonderful. It’s so good to see a Marinara sauce that does not have Oregano, which is what every American cook puts in theirs. Italians use a lot or Oregano, but not in their pasta sauces.

    Reply
    • Florentina

      April 11, 2020 at 10:28 am

      That seems like an error in the recipe card I’ll have to correct, it’s most likely for the entire batch.

      Reply
  18. Allison

    November 11, 2020 at 2:11 pm

    5 stars
    The only thing I changed about this was that I had to use dried spices since I didn’t have fresh and it still tasted SO good while I was first cooking it. Reminded me of Demos’ marinara sauce which I’ve been trying to replicate for a long time! Sadly though I cooked meatballs and added the m to the sauce while I let it cook and it completely dulled the flavor of the marinara for me. So next time I will definitely cook those separately and just top the meatballs with the sauce instead of adding them during cooking.

    Reply
  19. Lisa

    November 15, 2020 at 7:13 am

    Can I use red onions?

    Reply
    • Florentina

      November 23, 2020 at 7:48 am

      Sure!

      Reply
      • Linda

        July 24, 2021 at 4:56 pm

        Can I use fresh San Marzano instead of canned?

        Reply
        • Florentina

          July 26, 2021 at 4:11 pm

          You sure can, make sure to blanch and peel them first! ~ Florentina Xo’s

          Reply
  20. Lucia

    November 5, 2021 at 2:01 pm

    5 stars
    Imagine the finest sauce you’ve ever had in an Italian restaurant and this is better. There’s definitely something about using San Marzano tomatoes. It makes an amazing pizza sauce if you cook it down to a thicker consistency and might want to purée if you prefer a smooth consistency. We love the rustic texture and the flavor is absolutely wonderful. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  21. Kathryn Khoury

    March 15, 2022 at 12:29 pm

    5 stars
    Hi, I’m making this today for a party on Friday. I love this recipe and I haven’t even tasted it yet! At the end, I’ll add the sliced basil and refrigerate, right? Also, I love that you don’t salt until the flavors of the tomatoes and herbs are released. So perfect, thanks!

    Reply
    • Florentina

      March 16, 2022 at 10:58 am

      Yes that’s correct + you can add more fresh basil when serving. Enjoy! ~ Florentina Xo’s

      Reply
  22. Caryn

    March 30, 2022 at 3:21 pm

    This looks amazing!! Can I jar / can this? I don’t want to freeze.

    Thank you

    Reply
    • Florentina

      March 31, 2022 at 11:24 am

      You sure can! Enjoy!

      Reply

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Ciao Florentina Channeling the Man in the Photo, one recipe at a time, mostly Italian and Vegetarian lifestyle! Please join my quest for the art of simple, rustic living, trying to capture the raw beauty of food & life through the lens of my Iphone - Florentina L.

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