Fresh Tomato Marinara Sauce
Every summer, my family and I plant a small vegetable garden in our backyard. Our favorite veggies to grow are tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet banana peppers, green peppers, and zucchini. We always plant a mixture of grape, big boy, and yellow tomatoes.
San Marzano Tomatoes, Where Have You Been All My Life?
But friends, this is the first summer that we added San Marzano roma tomatoes to our variety, and boy, were they a big hit! As soon as they started to come in, I started to think of all the wonderful things I could make and fresh tomato marinara sauce was definitely at the top of the list.
How long does it take to make fresh tomato marinara sauce?
Fresh Tomato Marinara Sauce is super easy to make and can be finished in 30 minutes. If you choose to blanch and skin your tomatoes before you make the sauce, you’ll need to add another 10 minutes or so to the clock, but it’s time well spent. (In this recipe, I didn’t bother blanching and skinning, and just picked out the skins at the end of the cooking process.)
My Mom taught me how to make this sauce and I could never get it right — I followed all of the steps, but it didn’t measure up to Mom’s. That was up until this summer when I started using Roma tomatoes! It turns out that Roma tomatoes are the key to sweet, fresh, perfectly balanced tomato marinara sauce. So if you don’t have your own garden, be sure to source them from your local farm stand, or, the old stand-in — San Marzano tomatoes in a can. Cento makes the best, in my opinion.
How to Make Fresh Tomato Marinara Sauce
All you need to make fresh tomato marinara sauce is: a big handful of fresh basil, 6-8 cloves of garlic, olive oil, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper, and of course, fresh Roma tomatoes!
- First, peel and finely chop about 6-8 fresh cloves of garlic; set aside.
- Rinse and cut the stems off of about 4-5 pounds of fresh Roma tomatoes (roughly 20 or so tomatoes) and give them a rough chop. Don’t worry — they will cook down in the simmering process.
- Rinse a bunch of fresh basil and towel dry
- Preheat a large dutch oven on medium heat. Coat the pan with 1/4 cup of olive oil.
- Add your garlic and saute for no more than 30 seconds — just until the garlic turns opaque. If you let the garlic burn — throw it out and start over!
- Add your tomatoes, basil, pinch of sugar, salt and pepper to the pan and carefully stir to fully coat the tomatoes.
- You will not have a lot of liquid at this point — that’s okay!
- Let the tomatoes begin to boil, and then turn down to a simmer and cover the pot.
- Simmer the tomatoes for 30 minutes, stirring and breaking apart the tomatoes with the back of your wooden spoon.
- Now it’s time to taste test — do they need more salt? Go ahead and sprinkle a little in and stir. Then test again until you get it to your liking. Always go easy on the salt — you can always add more.
- Serve with your favorite pasta and crusty Italian bread and cheese.
- To Freeze: Wait until the sauce cools, and then ladle into freezer bags. The sauce will stay fresh for up to six months.
Enjoy!
If you are asking how to make fresh tomato marinara sauce, then you've come to the right place! It's super easy, and ready to make in 30 minutes!
- 6 cloves Garlic, crushed
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 pinch sugar
- 1 bunch fresh basil
- 4-5 lbs Fresh Roma tomatoes (about 20)
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
-
First, peel and finely chop about 6-8 fresh cloves of garlic; set aside.
-
Rinse and cut the stems off of about 4-5 pounds of fresh Roma tomatoes (roughly 20 or so tomatoes) and give them a rough chop. Don’t worry — they will cook down in the simmering process.
-
Rinse a bunch of fresh basil and towel dry
-
Preheat a large Dutch oven on medium heat. Coat the pan with 1/4 cup of olive oil.
-
Add your garlic and sauté for no more than 30 seconds — just until the garlic turns opaque. If you let the garlic burn — throw it out and start over!
-
Add your tomatoes, basil, pinch of sugar, salt and pepper to the pan and carefully stir to fully coat the tomatoes. You will not have a lot of liquid at this point — that’s okay!
-
Let the tomatoes begin to boil, and then turn down to a simmer and cover the pot.
-
Simmer the tomatoes for 30 minutes, stirring and breaking apart the tomatoes with the back of your wooden spoon.
-
Now it’s time to taste test — do they need more salt? Go ahead and sprinkle a little in and stir. Then test again until you get it to your liking. Always go easy on the salt — you can always add more.
-
Serve with your favorite pasta and crusty Italian bread and cheese.
-
To Freeze: Wait until the sauce cools, and then ladle into freezer bags. The sauce will stay fresh for up to six months.
