Easy Marinara Sauce

This homemade easy marinara sauce is full of tangy tomato flavor and takes just over 15 minutes to make: no chopping required!

The other day, my best friend told me: “I want to learn how to make marinara sauce. Like a really, really good marinara sauce.” Because a really good red sauce is hard to come by, right? Alex and I have tried a lot of recipes over the years: many of them take hours to simmer on the stove, and they don’t turn out that great. We wanted to make one that was tangy, super flavorful, and also takes about minutes to make. Meet our new best ever easy marinara sauce! It’s heavy on the tangy sweet tomato flavor, a little garlicky, and perfect for a simple pasta or dipping grilled cheese or calzones.

Also try: Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

The secrets to this truly easy marinara sauce

There are lots of people who claim they have the best marinara sauce recipe. Or even the most traditional marinara sauce. Here, we’ve used some time-tested techniques and some “shortcuts” to make this easy marinara sauce that is both delicious and doesn’t take an hour to simmer. (Speaking of, if you’d like a long-simmered sauce, try our Best Vodka Sauce.)

Here are some of our secrets to an easy marinara sauce that doesn’t even require chopping:

1. Use fire roasted tomatoes. First rule of a good marinara sauce: if the tomatoes don’t taste good, the sauce won’t taste good! To make our marinara sauce taste amazing in a very short time frame, use fire-roasted tomatoes: their flavor is sweet and mild. These tomatoes are becoming common in US grocery stores. If you can’t find them, see below.
2. No chopping required: garlic powder instead! Most of our tomato-based sauces use fresh garlic. But as a shortcut for this easy marinara sauce, we’ve used garlic powder. It melds in perfectly and adds great flavor.
3. Fresh basil. Of course, fresh basil makes everything taste incredible! Basil is the key to this marinara sauce flavoring. If it’s not summer, it’s worth seeking out the fresh herbs in the grocery (you’ll thank us later).
4. A hint of balsamic. Balsamic vinegar rounds out the flavor here. It makes a subtle yet important difference!

What if I can’t find fire roasted tomatoes?

Fire roasted tomatoes are key in this recipe, because of their sweet flavor right out of the can. These tomatoes have been charred over an open fire, then canned. Other tomato varieties can taste bitter out of the can, and need to be cooked for longer.

Want to order them online? If you love online shopping like we do, here’s a link to buy Fire Roasted Tomatoes on Amazon.

If you can’t find fire roasted tomatoes for this recipe, you can substitute any high quality variety of canned tomatoes. You may find you have to cook the sauce a little longer to remove the bitterness. Take a taste at the end, and see if it needs a little extra love.

Best ways to serve marinara sauce

Of course you know how to serve marinara sauce, but here are some suggestions:

1. Pasta: Over spaghetti, penne, rigatoni, or gemelli
2. Dipping sauce: As a dipping sauce for calzones or grilled cheese dippers
3. Pizza: As a homemade pizza sauce
4. Meatballs: With our best vegan meatballs.
5. Eggplant Marinara: In eggplant marinara or grilled Eggplant Parmesan
6. Spaghetti Squash: Topping our Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti
7. Mussels: This recipe features in our easy Mussels Marinara

Want more easy Italian recipes?

Here at A Couple Cooks, we love Italian recipes. We’ve mastered the art of artisan pizza with our Pizza Margherita and fluffy Pizza Dough Master Recipe. We’ve got a totally authentic Cacio e Pepe and an Italian-grandmother style Vodka Sauce.

Here are a few more easy Italian recipes that we love:

• Easy Creamy Gnocchi: It takes just 20 minutes to put together this gourmet Italian mac and cheese.
• Pasta Puttanesca: This classic pasta gets big flavor from tomatoes and Kalamata olives.
• Tuscan Soup with White Beans: This Tuscan soup tastes like pizza, in liquid form.

This easy marinara sauce recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, plant-based, and dairy-free.

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