Homemade marinara sauce is one of those no-fuss recipes that can be done a thousand different ways but we will just focus on the bare minimum.
tl;dr: chopped tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and reduce.
One of my key comments for a marinara sauce is very basic and simple: Look for chopped/crushed tomato cans that do not have any added ingredients. Adding ingredients creates a different taste profile and it will not be what you are looking for.
Ingredients:
- A can of chopped/crushed tomatoes
- One or two garlic cloves
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- two leaves of fresh basil
Homemade marinara sauce recipe
- Chop the garlic cloves in 3 pieces. We want to remove them later. If you do not mind them, then hope them in small pieces and you will also be fine
- In a deep hot pan add some olive oil and the garlic. We are looking to infuse the olive oil with the garlic flavor. Move them around a bit so they do not burn. Burned garlic is not something cool.
- If you are the type that wants a spicy marinara – which I humbly think that you should not! – then in the oil add either some fresh jalapenos or red pepper flakes – again, don’t mess with the marinara!
- After the garlic is infused, add the chopped/crushed tomatoes. Fill the same can with some water – usually halfway/three quarters way full
- Bring to boil and lower the heat.
- Add two leaves of fresh basil.
- You will need to reduce this for at least 1 hour, preferably two. depending on how much sauce you use. For the normal cans, just 1 hour is fine.
The same source works perfectly for pasta recipes, which you do not need to reduce this much.
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