Quick and Basic Marinara Sauce

Homemade marinara sauce is wonderful because then you can put only the ingredients that you love - for example, my husband does not like onions and most store bought marinara sauces contain lots of onions. That is when I started making our own marinara sauce - without onions (sad!!) but it still tastes great and to be honest, I am getting used to not having much onions in my food. If you're a fan of onions, however, you'd better chop off some onions and put it in your marinara sauce! :)

This recipe is pretty basic. But I do add some extra stuff, such as dry Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, and a lot of garlic! So here's the recipe for my quick and basic marinara sauce. Enjoy!

Quick and Basic Marinara Sauce 

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (optional)

2 (28-oz) cans whole tomatoes in juice

1 bunch of fresh basil, stemmed

1/2 cup extr-virgin olive oil

2 small onions, finely chopped (optional for my family though :)

4-5 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup black olives, sliced 

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup dried Parmesan cheeese

Salt and pepper to taste

Direction:

Brown ground meat in a large pan over high heat. Drain and set aside.

Okay, this is what I do with the tomatoes. You might want to do it in a different way but I really like it this way -

In a blender, puree one can of the tomatoes with its juice and the basil until almost smooth. Set the tomato puree aside. (You may puree both cans tomatoes but I like my marinara sauce a little chunky. So I dice the tomatoes a little bit smaller and set it aside.)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute until very tender, about 10-12 minutes. Stir in the tomato puree and the chunky tomatoes in juice, olives, Italian seasoning, oregano, sugar and Parmesan cheese. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Decrease the heat to medium and continue simmering until the sauce thickens slightly, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.

I freeze my leftover marinara sauce.

Sook the Cook