The Best Homemade Marinara Sauce Recipe (2024)

Updated: Jul 21, 2023 by Veronica Noone · This post may contain affiliate links · 21 Comments

Once you've made this homemade marinara sauce recipe, you'll never go back to buying jars of sauce again. So simple to throw together using pantry supplies, this is one recipe from scratch that is sure to please anyone at your dinner table. Added to pasta, in soups or stews, and of course, with my favorite homemade meatballs, this sauce recipe is the one you'll go back to time and again.

The Best Homemade Marinara Sauce Recipe (1)

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Homemade Marinara Sauce Recipe
Can I Add More Vegetables to the Sauce?
Can I Make This Ahead of Time?
How Many myWW Points are in This Recipe?
Ingredients
How to Make Homemade Marinara Sauce
📖 Recipe

Homemade Marinara Sauce Recipe

There is nothing at all wrong with using a jar of pasta sauce, but if you want, this recipe is ideal for making something from scratch. You don't have to slave for hours over the stove either! The best part of this homemade sauce is just how easy it is to throw into a pot and let simmer. While you'll want to let it cook slowly, that doesn't mean you have to spend forever in the kitchen to have great results.

I love using this with my homemade turkey meatballs for a delicious pasta dish, but you can serve it alone over your favorite pasta if you prefer. It can be used with zucchini and spaghetti squash lasagna, whole wheat pasta bake, or baked rigatoni and zucchini.

Can I Add More Vegetables to the Sauce?

One thing that I like to do when making this is to beef it up a bit with added vegetables. The basic sauce is versatile in everything from pasta to pizza, but sometimes I want something a bit more vibrant with more texture. In those instances, I add more vegetables for flavor, protein, and fiber. Below are some good choices that work well in this recipe.

Mushrooms
Onions
Bell peppers
Zucchini
Fresh tomatoes
Carrot
Celery

You can also use fresh herbs in place of the dried herbs listed. Fresh is harder to find year-round, so I like to give recipes with dried herb measurements for convenience.

The Best Homemade Marinara Sauce Recipe (2)

Can I Make This Ahead of Time?

I love having homemade sauce on hand at all times if I can. This recipe can easily be made ahead of time if you want to have it on hand. The easiest way to make this for later is to make and freeze it in freezer soup containers or Ziploc bags. If you are handy with canning foods, then you can easily can it for long term storage. While that's not something I have tutorials on, you can definitely look into both pressure canning as well as water bath canning.

How Many myWW Points are in This Recipe?

This recipe makes 8-10 servings of ½ cup each. The variation will depend upon the size of your tomatoes and how much it cooks down during the process of simmering. While the end amount may measure a bit different, I calculate the points using an 8 portion amount with the original ingredients.

myWW Blue: 2
myWW Green: 2
myWW Purple: 2
Points Plus: 3

The Best Homemade Marinara Sauce Recipe (3)

Ingredients

Crushed tomatoes
Diced tomatoes
Tomato paste
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Dried basil
Dried parsley
Dried oregano
Bay leaves
Crushed red pepper
Black pepper
Water

How to Make Homemade Marinara Sauce

In a large stock pot, add the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and water over high heat.

Once boiling, add all of the spices and reduce the mixture to a simmer.

Cover with a lid and cook over low heat for 2 hours stirring every 20-30 minutes.

Uncover after 2 hours, stir and continue simmering without the lid for another 2 hours.

If using meat or meatballs with this sauce, you can cook and add those in the last 30-minutes of cooking time to increase the flavor.

Serve with your favorite pasta or store for up to one week in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

📖 Recipe