Marinara Sauce

Any time I find bright red, ripe tomatoes, I bring them home and make myself a batch of delicious marinara sauce. It can then be there for me in the fridge for a few weeks for whenever I crave some pizza or a homely spaghetti or lasagna. What a blessing to have this ready when you need it!

Easy homemade sauces are any day better than store-bought ones that are full of additives and chemicals. I mean even just from a taste standpoint, I would not give up the liberty to choose and control the balance of flavors and ingredients as per my preference. But then there is the convenience aspect, and as a food scientist it will be criminal if I said that all packaged sauces are bad 😛 There are some processed/packaged foods that strike the right chord in terms of taste and have a relatively cleaner label and a good company behind them. However, In case of marinara sauce, I am yet to find one.

Especially if you’re looking for a true homemade food experience when making restaurant favorites such as pizza and pasta, isn’t it better you go all out and make a fresh sauce as well?

Here’s a recipe that you can make and store up to 3-4 weeks.

The recipe below makes enough sauce to cover 4-5 ~9 inch pizza bases or make about 6-8 servings of pasta.

You will need:

Fresh ripe red tomatoes – 4-5 large tomatoes make enough

1 small onion finely chopped

1-2 cloves of garlic – crushed

1/2 teaspoon of dried italian herbs or just oregano

1/2 tsp of red chilli flakes

salt, sugar, black pepper to taste

1-2 tbsp of tomato ketchup (optional) OR 1/2 tbsp sugar

Olive oil for cooking the sauce in and some for layering on top of the jar, if planning to store in the fridge for some time.

For the sauce:  

• Make a cross cut on the tomatoes and blanch them in boiling water for 10-15 minutes, depending on the firmness of the tomatoes.
• After blanching, add in cold water and peel. Puree with a blender on low speed.

• In a pan, take some olive oil and saute a chopped onion in it. Do not let it brown just let it sweat. Add some salt to help this process.
• Add in the crushed garlic
• Once the onions are cooked, add the tomato puree.

• Add the tomato ketchup and let simmer for a couple of minutes.
• Add all the seasonings when a little oil starts to leave from the sides.

• Cool the sauce before use. You can also store it in an airtight container for a few days in the refrigerator. If you want to store it for longer, add a layer of raw olive oil on top – this will preserve the sauce for longer.

Assembling the pizza:

• On the pre-cooked base, add a large dollop of your freshly made tomato sauce
• Put generous amounts of mozzarella cheese and some basil (If you don’t like cooked basil, add the basil leaves after the pizza is completely baked.

For the classic margherita and other pizzas, see my post on pizza. You can also find the recipe for just the pizza base here.