Best Homemade Tomato Sauce Recipe

4.54 from 13 votes

This Homemade Marinara Sauce is rich, delicious and easy to make! It's so versatile, use it on pasta, pizzas, fish and so much more!

Prep Time10

Cook Time1

Total Time1 10

Course: Main Course, Sauce

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: servings

Place the olive oil, 1 tablespoon of butter, and onions in a large saucepan set over medium-low heat. Cook the onions, stirring often, until tender and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook ofr an additional 30 seconds.
1 tablespoon olive oil, 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 medium yellow onion, 2 cloves garlic
While the onions cook, pull or cut off the tough stem end of each tomato and crush the tomatoes with a potato masher. Pour all the tomatoes and their juices into the pan with the onion/garlic mixture.
56 ounces Certified San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes
Add the bay leaf, basil, remaining 5 tablespoons of butter, kosher salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. Stir well.
1 bay leaf, 2 sprigs fresh basil leaves, ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, 2 pinches crushed red pepper flakes
Bring the sauce to a simmer, reduce heat to low, and cook until sauce has thickened, about 45 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and basil stems. If desired, puree the sauce with a stick blender or in a stand blender.

The sauce can be kept refrigerated, in an airtight container, up to 1 week or frozen up to 3 months.

Yields 3 cups sauce.

Use only fresh garlic, not bottled, for best flavor.

Use San Marzano tomatoes for best flavor. If you can’t find them, canned Cento tomatoes work too.

Fresh basil is highly recommended here. Dried basil has quite a different flavor and it won’t be as good.

For more flavor, simmer it with a parmesan rind.

Add red pepper flakes if you like a little heat.