Hearty Marinara Sauce – A Good Basic to Master

This savory and hearty marinara sauce is much tastier than what you can buy at the store, and barely takes more than half an hour.

It features pantry staples and long lasting produce, including garlic and onion. Try it on your next meal of pasta, pizza, or just with fresh bread!

You may also enjoy my vegan garlic bread alongside this recipe, or my frozen garlic bread in the air fryer for a faster side dish.

Most store-bought marinara sauces taste very sweet, which I don’t care for. I know big companies add sugar (and now high-fructose corn syrup) to extend the shelf life and preserve the tomato sauce.

That being said, I want my marinara sauce to taste like tomatoes, not sugar.

Tomatoes in history (spoiler: they’re not as Italian as you may think!)

While we often think of tomatoes in relation to sun-drenched Italy (pizza, pasta, caprese salad – the list could go on), they actually originated in the New World, more specifically South America. Our word tomato comes from the Aztec tomatl, which is what the Spanish conquistadors who brought them from Peru back to Europe called them.

Tomatoes were not initially a big hit in Europe (or North America, for that matter). Especially in England, people thought they were poisonous (due to their resemblance to the deadly nightshade family) and just used them as decorative plants.

In fact, they were poisonous when served on pewter plates, which is how rich Europeans ate their food. The acid in tomatoes leeched the lead out of the pewter and into the food on the plate.

Despite this risk, tomatoes grew in popularity, particularly in Naples, Italy, but even more so back across the pond in North America. When a large number of Italians began moving to North America in the 1800s, they brought tomatoes with them. Tomatoes became much more popular among the residents of North America with this cosmopolitan pedigree than before, when they were obtained from Mexico.

Back in Naples, in 1889, a pizza maker invented the Margherita pizza (featuring lovely tomatoes) to honor Queen Margherita of Savoy. This showed how the tomato had earned a respected place in Neapolitan, Italian, and European cuisine.

To read more about this topic, check out this fascinating article on how the tomato transformed the European diet.

Do I really need San Marzano tomatoes?

When I was first learning how to make homemade marinara sauce a few years ago, everything I read said that you really needed to use San Marzano tomatoes imported from Italy. I have used them several times, and they are delicious.

That being said, I have also used San Marzano-style tomatoes grown in California (much cheaper in my part of the world), whole canned tomatoes, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, organic, not organic, fire-roasted, plum tomatoes, etc. Every time I have made marinara sauce it has been delicious and much better than what I could buy in a jar.

I have not done any side by side comparisons. Buy what works with your budget and culinary inclinations.

Why do I need whole tomatoes if I’m just going to crush them anyway? Can’t I just use diced?

You absolutely can. In theory, tomatoes are picked at peak ripeness and deliciousness and then immediately canned. Whole tomatoes, being less processed, preserve their flavor better. This is what makes canned tomatoes so nice in cold climates and during the winter.

If you want to buy diced or crushed and save a step, feel free. I haven’t noticed a difference in flavor, but again I never did any side by side tests.

Hearty Marinara Sauce Ingredients

Before you begin, you will need:

• One 28-ounce can of tomatoes (preferably whole San Marzano, but see above)
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced or you can use a garlic press (Normally when I make marinara sauce, I use four cloves of garlic. As you can see from the ingredients photo, this most recent bulb of garlic I bought has monstrously large cloves, which is why the photo only has two.)
• 1 small onion (I used a red one)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil

• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (less if you don’t want it spicy)
• Fresh basil
• 1 pound of pasta, if you are eating this with pasta. (You can also dip bread in this sauce, make pizza with it, or add it in between the layers of this eggplant napoleon.)
• A knife and cutting board
• A skillet and spoon
• A pot for the pasta if you are making some
• Measuring spoons

How to make hearty marinara sauce

1. To begin, peel and chop your onion.
2. Next, place your skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil.
3. Once the oil is hot, add the chopped onion and cook about five minutes, or to your preference. I browned mine, but you can just cook until translucent if preferred.
4. While the onion is cooking, put on your apron, then add the tomatoes to a large bowl and squish them into bite-sized pieces with your fist.
5. When the onion is almost done, add the minced garlic (or use a garlic press over the pan). Cook until fragrant.
6. At this point, start adding the tomatoes to the pan. As the liquid cooks down, rinse the tomato can and add a bit more water (up to one cup or so).
7. Now, add your salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. Stir to combine.
8. Also at this point, add some fresh basil. For small leaves, you can just throw them in. For larger leaves, however, I usually tear them into smaller pieces. You can leave a few big ones whole to make it look nice if you want.
9. Let the marinara sauce simmer for around 30 minutes or so, until all the flavors have thoroughly combined.
10. While the sauce is simmering, boil your pasta if desired. Once it is done to your preference, drain and set aside.
11. Once the marinara sauce looks ready, serve over pasta or with bread, and enjoy!

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Variations on Hearty Marinara Sauce

If you are short on time, skip the onion and all those steps. This yields a very tasty and quick sauce. Authentic marinara sauce made in southern Italy does not use onions. That being said, I’m not sure I would consider it hearty without at least some extra vegetables added.

Regional variations use ingredients like capers, olives, and wine. Feel free to experiment with what you like. Artichoke hearts would be delicious in this hearty marinara sauce.

Feel free to add carrots, celery, peppers, mushrooms, peas, or anything you like to make a heartier, chunkier sauce with some real heft.

If you don’t need this meal to be vegan, feel free to garnish with cheese or use butter to cook the onions if that is your preference. I use olive oil for just about everything, but I know some don’t care for the strong flavor.

I really enjoy the fresh basil in this dish, but of course dried is fine as well. Try adding oregano or any other herbs you’d like. Fresh parsley would also be good in this sauce.

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Related Tomato Sauce and Pasta Recipes

Were you hoping for a recipe using fresh tomatoes? You may enjoy my recipe for pomodorini penne, or pasta with fresh cherry tomatoes!

You may also enjoy my Gouda mac and cheese.

I hope you enjoy this classic recipe for hearty marinara sauce!