Super Simple Marinara Sauce
This marinara sauce recipe is the best! It's so easy to make with just 5 basic ingredients and 45 minutes on the stove. No chopping required! This healthy homemade marinara will become your family's favorite.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 5, 2024
Meet the marinara sauce recipe of my dreams! I’ve always been intimidated by marinara, maybe because I love it so much that I was afraid of messing it up. I finally faced my fears and tried making marinara every which way. This version is my favorite, no contest.
This homemade marinara sauce offers rich and lively tomato flavor. You’ll need only five basic pantry ingredients to make this delicious marinara sauce: good canned tomatoes, onion, garlic, dried oregano and olive oil. That’s it!
This marinara is exceptionally easy to make, too, so it’s perfect for busy weeknights. You don’t even have to chop the onion and garlic. Yep, that’s right—just crank open a can of tomatoes, halve an onion and peel some garlic. You’re ready to go!
This sauce offers lovely, authentic Italian flavor after a 45-minute simmer. I tried to take shortcuts to make it even faster, but no amount of tomato paste, spices, salt or sugar will make up for lost time.
Bottom line: It’s impossible to achieve enchanting, long-simmered marinara flavor in under 45 minutes. So throw those ingredients in a pot, pour yourself a glass of wine and boil water for pasta. Dinner is almost ready.
After trying many variations on marinara sauce, I adapted this recipe from Deb’s tomato sauce with onion and butter, which was originally sourced from Marcella Hazan’s 1992 cookbook, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.
I love that tomato sauce, but it doesn’t pass for marinara since it’s missing herbs, garlic and olive oil. So, I added dried oregano and two whole cloves of garlic (which you’ll smash against the side of the pan at the end).
I traded a reasonable amount of olive oil for the butter (you really don’t need to use a ton of olive oil here for rich flavor). I also added a pinch of red pepper flakes for a little kick, but those are optional.
Why is this the best marinara sauce?
Six reasons to love this recipe:
- This marinara sauce recipe requires 5 basic ingredients and yields rich, authentic marinara flavor.
- It’s super easy to make—no chopping required.
- Unlike most store-bought sauces, this marinara is free of added sugar.
- You can load up your pasta with as much of this wholesome sauce as you’d like. Tomatoes are good for you!
- The recipe yields two cups of sauce and freezes well, so you might as well double the recipe. Just cook it in a bigger pot.
- This marinara also makes an incredible pizza sauce. I made pizza with it and my friend remarked that it tastes like real-deal Italian pizza.
Please let me know in the comments how you like this sauce! It’s a new staple in my kitchen, and I hope it becomes a go-to recipe for you as well.
Craving more classic Italian recipes? Don’t miss these:
- Basil Pesto
- Vegetable Lasagna
- Hearty Spaghetti with Lentils & Marinara Sauce
- Baked Ziti with Roasted Vegetables
- Classic Minestrone Soup
- Italian Chopped Salad
Watch How to Make Marinara Sauce
Super Simple Marinara Sauce
This marinara sauce recipe is the best! You’ll only need 5 basic ingredients, and it’s so easy to make. No chopping required! Recipe yields 2 cups sauce (enough for 8 to 16 ounces pasta, depending on how saucy you like it); double if desired.
Ingredients
- 1 large can (28 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes*
- 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and halved
- 2 large cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional, omit if sensitive to spice)
- Salt, to taste (if necessary)
- Optional, for serving: Cooked pasta, grated Parmesan cheese or vegan Parmesan, chopped fresh basil, additional olive oil
Instructions
- In a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the tomatoes (with their juices), halved onion, garlic cloves, olive oil, oregano and red pepper flakes (if using).
- Bring the sauce to a simmer over medium-high heat, then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of oil float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, and use a sturdy wooden spoon to crush the tomatoes against the side of the pot after the sauce has cooked for about 15 minutes.
- Remove the pot from the heat and discard the onion. Smash the garlic cloves against the side of the pot with a fork, then stir the smashed garlic into the sauce. Do the same with any tiny onion pieces you might find. Use the wooden spoon to crush the tomatoes to your liking (you can blend this sauce smooth with an immersion blender or stand blender, if desired).
- Add salt, to taste (the tomatoes are already pretty salty, so you might just need a pinch). Serve warm. This sauce keeps well, covered and refrigerated, for up to 4 days. Freeze it for up to 6 months.
Notes
*Tomato note: Using high quality tomatoes is key here. I recommend Muir Glen tomatoes. They’re organic and the cans are BPA-free.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
You said you traded some olive oil for butter but I don’t see any butter in your recipe. How much did you use.
Hi Linda, I used olive oil vs butter for this recipe. See the post for details. I hope that helps!
I did this with my end of the season Roma tomatoes. I split them in half and tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper. Then I oven roasted them first. It really softens them up for the sauce and deepens the flavor. I mixed in a 28oz can of good San Marzano tomatoes. And I had a big bunch of fresh basil from the garden as well. I added just 1 to 2 Tbl of balsamic vinegar too.
Overall this is similar to a tomato basil soup recipe from Ina Garten that I have been making for years. The main difference is that the soup recipe calls for 1qt of veggie stock (actually was chicken original, but I made it vegetarian).
I’m glad to add the marinara recipe to the rotation. There’s something great about thawing out soup, salsa, and marinara made with garden tomatoes in December/January.
Thanks for all the great recipes.
You’re welcome, Steve! Thank you for sharing.
I’m preparing this as we speak. Needs to simmer about another 20 or 30 minutes. Should it thicken up? It looks pretty watery right now.
Hi Jack, How did it turn out? It shouldn’t be watery. Did you breakup the tomatoes?
This was absolutely delicious! Tasted very fresh and flavorful. I doubled the recipe- also added a carrot and a few sweet peppers. I had to use a pinch of sugar to balance the acid. Blended everything together in the end without discarding onions. We used 1/3 of the sauce for a meal that day and froze the rest. Freezes beautifully and a little goes a long way, as it is so flavorful.
This sauce was so delicious I almost “tasted” half of it without even cooking it. I am very leary of marinera sauces, but now this is definitely my favorite. So tasty and perfectly simple!
Just made this tonight. I am now a huge fan of yours. I was skeptical I could make a nice marinara without all the processed ick from the increasingly spendy jarred versions. SO much better, never again jar people. Perfect fresh taste, I used peeled whole San Marzanos, all other ingredients – upped the garlic to keep the vampires away. Italian seasoning – too tired to search for my oregano. Because my hubs insisted kept the onion and immersion chopped to a chunky and lovely consistency. I have bookmarked your page
I’m glad you made it, Laura! I appreciate your review.
Hi Kate
I made this sauce from your recipe. I was very tired after work and I wanted to make Chicken Parmigiana from some chicken schnitzel that I bought from our local butcher. I was beginning to get quite fatigued until I came across your recipe. “Sit down and have a glass of wine” caught my eye. I used some of this sauce on the chicken to make the parmigiana and the rest I used on top of some spaghetti that I also cooked. I served it up with some spinach that we had growing in our garden. It tasted like the real deal. My wife was amazed and thought that I had went to a lot of trouble making the sauce. I hadn’t the heart to tell her how simple it was. Thanks, the sauce made the meal.
I’m glad you loved it, Gerry! I appreciate your review.
Close to my recipe. I add a shot of red wine towards the end that matches what I will surve with the meal:) I use a can of chopped and one small can of paste a bit of water early on. For a vegy night I add mushrooms and spinach.
Super quick and easy! I thought I had whole tomatoes on hand, did not :-( but had several cans of crushed tomato and used that. I also had to use jarred minced garlic so I tossed in 4 teaspoons with the onion. I made meatballs, browned them and tossed them in as well. It was a little acidy, so I added a teaspoon of sugar. After an hour I pulled the meatballs and emulsified the veggies. It was very good and my husband loved it. Next time I’ll use the whole tomatoes and garlic cloves.
I’m glad you were still able to enjoy it, Marjorie! I appreciate your review.
Gorgeous!! This will now be my forever Marinara recipe. So easy to make and SO flavoursome. No chopping! Who knew:-). Thanks ever so much!!
Do you use half an onion or a whole onion halved?
Hi! See the ingredients list. It’s halved. I hope you enjoy it!
Holy shiitake mushrooms this is great! I made this exactly as explained and with Muir Glen toms and I’ll never buy jarred sauce again!
So good & super easy. I had everything on hand.
I omitted the pepper flakes since my kids were eating it, but I bet they make the sauce even more delicious.
That’s great to hear, Lisa! Thank you for your review.
I am actually making this sauce right now! And I mean, literally… I just started the slow simmer, and was wondering if we were supposed to cover the pot? Thanks for the great recipes
Hi Carmen! I hope you loved it. No need to cover the pot.
Hi,
I didn’t follow your recipe to the letter; I used it as an inspiration. I diced the onions, cooked them and left them in. I crushed several cloves of garlic and cooked them while I was cooking the onions. It was magnificent. It will definately be more go to recipe when I need a tomato based sauce.
Thanks.
My husband just tried the sauce (made it for the first time) and he is in love :)
That’s great to hear, Gwen! Thank you for sharing.
Great Recipe and it turned out Great. FIRST time making this and it was a hit. Thank you for sharing this recipe because Sunday dinner was delicious.
Great to hear, Mickey! I appreciate your review.
Making this right this minute..smells great will be using it for lasagna for Christmas dinner !!!! Merry Christmas
Hi Kate. I’ve been making Marcella Hazan’s simple tomato sauce for years. Credit where credit is due. She was a lovely person and a fabulous cook and writer!
I’m often confronted by recipes that do not specify whether the pot is covered or uncovered during cooking. Your marinara recipe is another such example.
Hi Matthew, I’m sorry to hear you are disappointed. Unless stated, you cook uncovered.
Thanks for your response. That said, can I suggest that it may be easier to add « covered or uncovered » to the directions than it is to rely on folks knowing what to do in the absence of a clarification? Loved the marinara!
Amazing sauce I used diced tomatoes instead and it still turned out great I used it for meatball subs and the sauce was better then the meat balls everyone loved it
So glad I stumbled across this no chop, all in one of pot marinara sauce. It’s so easy and delicious I make it every week!! We have fresh oregano so I throw that in and blitz everything with a stick blender at the end, onions and all!
I love this sauce. I let the sauce simmer for a tad longer to melt some of the onions. Then add some fresh basil at the end.
Do you have instructions for canning this sauce? I’d like to make a few pints to store and use when short on time.
Nice simple sauce, thanks!
This recipe is so easy and tastes fantastic! Will be my go to marinara from now on! I used my immersion blender so the sauce was less chunky
Don’t waste onion, eat it. I’ll eat all sauce this week, don’t waste energy by freezing it. No cans, I used home grown tomatoes from Oct. Ideally process veggies & fruits chill in frig, after midnight move to freezer, then elec. Use is lowest.
We have been trying to eat from our pantry stock, so we haven’t bought many groceries lately. I was craving spaghetti, but only had a can of diced tomatoes with the basil, garlic, and oregano mixed in. I found your recipe, halved it since I only had a 14 oz can, followed your directions (except the spices because they were already in the can) and voila! I had a delicious bowl of spaghetti using what I already had in my pantry. I will be saving this for making my own sauce next time because it was so easy and economical! Thank you!
This is amazing!! I’ve never made my own sauce before and this made me feel like a pro. I added impossible meat vegan ground beef to it. It freezes so well, too!
Great recipe. It does take a bit of time but it’s mostly hands off. As someone with more time than money, who likes good food, I like that this is cheaper to make than store-bought sauce, even when you use really high quality canned tomatoes – and of course it’s great to be able to control what goes into the sauce. I added some fennel stalks, sliced in half lengthwise, which imparted a subtle flavour. I could not bear to discard the onion so, since I was making this to use in the roasted vegetable ziti recipe on this site, I chopped up the onion and added it to the pasta mixture, instead of using roasted onions. I did discard the fennel stalks, as I’ve found that no amount of braising makes them tender enough to enjoy eating.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Ann! I know others will find this helpful.
The best marinara sauce ever. So easy to make but does not compromise on taste! Thank you <3
I did exactly what the recipe said except i left onions in while i emulsified it. My husband loved it!! Will definitely be making this again!!!
Great to hear, Elizabeth!
So delicious. I always wondered how to get this flavour and am so happy to have found this recipe. So simple! I’ve made a very large batch to portion up and keep in freezer.
Great sauce! As an intermediate level cook with little experience with putting garlic in sauces, I was pleased with how it melted and how easy it was to crush afterwards.
One thing I noticed however: marinara sauce is supposed to have onions in it and they in fact enrich its taste. So my recommendation would be to modify the recipe to note that removing the onion is your personal preference (and to explain why by stating how it affects the taste, giving as many details as you can). I mention this because having gone through your recipe step-by-step, I put the onions in as halves (I doubled the recipe for one liter of sauce) before noticing that you meant for us to remove them.
In essence, I would just add a note next to the onion(s) in the ingredients list stating that if one wishes to incorporate them in the sauce, it is better to simply chop them up into smaller pieces as it saves us the step of needing to blend the sauce afterwards.
Also, as others have stated, I added an amount of basil equivalent to that of the oregano. I based my inspiration for these small additions on the jarred marinara sauce brand I usually buy and some recommendations I found both through Google and in this thread’s comments.
Loved it!! So easy and so good. My go to recipe for Marinara:)
Hi! Thanks for the recipe. Can I use canned diced tomatoes?
I recommend this recipe as written to get the most authentic flavor.
I love this recipe – so simple but so good. It takes a little time but is almost entirely “hands off” – you just bung a few things in a pan, give it an occasional stir, and are rewarded with a beautiful sauce. Do use the best tomatoes you can get, especially if the sauce will be the star ingredient of your final dish. Most recently I used a good brand of San Marzanos, and as I had fresh oregano on hand, I threw in a few sprigs and cut the dried by half. This sauce will be used for some Greek recipes, so heavy on the oregano is good. If you’re going Italian, I’d lighten up on oregano and add fresh basil. I always make a double batch, and I use an enamelled cast iron pan and there’s no sticking or burning.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Ann! I appreciate your review.
Added a splash of Lee & Perrins
I understand why, but you come off a bit aggressive and mean sometimes in the comments. Maybe just only respond to the positive ones? It would be a better look. Honestly.
I made this recipe as its written besides adding extra garlic because I love garlic and I let it simmer for about an hour and a half and it was amazing. If you use really good canned tomatoes it makes a difference. I will never buy store sauce again. I have already stocked up on all the ingredients so I can make it over and over. Also I did not need any salt added and I did a pinch of red pepper. Amazing!
I love that! Thank you for sharing your experience, Lonni.
Hi Kate I already commented a month ago about how good this sauce is but I wanted to let you know I have made it at least 8 times now and its just my favorite meal. I either use it as a sauce over pasta or I add in some Italian sausage that I cook in the oven first then just eat it from a bowl. Its fantastic. Also I was using Cento San Marzano tomatoes which were delicious. I just tried this using Hunts San Marzano whole tomatoes which I got at Walmart for under $3.00 a can and it tastes just as amazing. Thanks again for the recipe.
I love to hear that, Lonni! Thank you for coming back to let me know.
Hi Kate! Thank you for this recipe! My brother and I are having a blast making it, but I wanted to know how you used this sauce in your pastas. Do you add meat, or just use as is? let me know!
Hello- I have made this recipe MANY times, just getting around to reviewing, apologies for the delay! This is SO easy to throw together, & SO good! I always make a double batch & have some in the freezer for emergencies (or for camping). Sometimes add sausage or ground beef, or serve over meatballs.
So good! My Jovial organic jarred tomatoes did not have salt, so I added some. And I had 18 oz. of tomatoes, so I used fresh grape tomatoes in addition. I smooshed them along with the garlic and onion bits. Really very good! Thank you!
You’re welcome, Debbie! Thank you for your review.
i just made this for the first time with CRAPPY tomatoes (one of the cans was even tomatoes and chilis, oops), immersion blended it after removing most of the onion, and added ground beef i had sautéed. served it over angel hair with parm. my picky eater just licked his plate and announced that he needed more. even with accidental chilis it came out stupendous (a tiny bit spicy but still 100% italian). i will definitely be making this from now on instead of marinara from a jar. thank you so much for this.
Absolutely delicious. After the first time making it, I now make a double batch if I have all the ingredients. Super easy to make, which is so appreciated with a toddler running around and needing attention.
I’m glad you loved it, Lauren! I appreciate your review.
We discovered this recipe a couple of years ago and we rate. My 3 daughters all love it and it’s a simple tasty authentic recipe – as the recipe says use the best tinned tomatoes you can buy.
I’m glad you have been enjoying this recipe for awhile! Thank you for your review, Mick.
Hi Kate, First of all I am almost 85 years old and I love Italian Food, I am still very active and cook every week for my family and friends, I must be doing something right for they all ask me to make the meals.
My father was Maltese and was a cook (not chef in the 20’s) as a young boy I watched him make our meals, what is now Spaghetti bolognese, was then known as just Macaroni and Maltese mince, I am sure you are aware, that the Italian and Maltese eat almost identical cuisine.
I was so fascinated by your Marinara sauce that I just have to give it a try, for I really do believe that we must never stop learning and after reading the reviews it sounds like a real winner.
The only question that I would like to ask is this, have you or any of your subscribers ever considered adding Tomato Puree? I love the stuff and feel that it may be the perfect companion to your recipe.
I will be making the sauce this coming week and I will let you know my opinion both with tomato Puree and without. Thank you so much for allowing me to subscribe, have a nice day and I look forward to similar recipes from you. Alec.
Hi! Thank you for your insight, Alec. We tested this marinara so many times and different ways. This is the best that I thought and authentic to what I have had. I hope you enjoy it!
Terrific sauce. I seldomly follow recipes to the word, but I do so here concerning the ingredients. Only change I make most times – I chop the onion roughly. Tomato-sauce onions takes me back to my childhood… I might add an extra small onion, too. But it has become my go-to recipe. No sugar, no chocolate, no other spices.
One negative thing, though. I find it on a horrible homepage. My two year old iPad can hardly load it. I counted 4 adds or pop-ups or overlays at the same time. This is too much and even though I love this recipe, I do not usually search the blog for more ideas.
I love everything Cookie and Kate; my first go to always. This was not my favorite, 2nd time. And everyone else loves it. I added some tomato paste, my personal preference. Added more garlic, kept the onion in it, salt and pepper, a little more olive oil. I then puréed some roasted veggies into it.. I think I got it now… love the comments- who knew.. brown sugar !
Thank you! I love to hear you love my recipes. I’m sorry you didn’t love this one. I appreciate your feedback, Katie.
I make this recipe using fresh heirloom tomatoes. It’s delicious.
That’s great to hear, William!
Oh. My. Good. Ness. I made this recipe exactly as written (using canned whole San Marzano tomatoes, but without the optional red pepper flakes) and it turned out AMAZING. Served it over linguini with some grated Parmesan and fresh basil. Like several other of your recipes, this one will be one of my “regulars!” Thank you, Cookie & Kate!
You’re welcome! Thank you for taking the time to review, CG.