How To Make Easy Marinara Sauce From Fresh Tomatoes

A guest post from Christine:

This from scratch marinara sauce is easy and delicious!  This method is something I learned from my Italian mother-in-law many many years ago.  Many people seed and peel their tomatoes before making sauce, but if you use smaller tomatoes and cook the sauce until the peels are very tender, it isn’t necessary to do either of those steps.

This recipe makes about 3 cups of sauce.  It literally bursts with flavor!

Ingredients:

1/3 cup of olive oil

2 tablespoons of butter

6 large cloves of garlic chopped

1 small yellow onion diced (about the size of a tennis ball)

Approximately 1 1/2 pounds of fresh small to medium tomatoes finely diced.  I have used heirloom cherry tomatoes from Space Girl Organics (sauce pictured above), Compari tomatoes, and the container tomatoes I grow myself).

2 tablespoons of tomato paste

1/4 cup of water

2 teaspoons of salt

1/4 teaspoon of pepper

1 cup of white wine (I have used red wine in a pinch)

1 large handful of chopped fresh italian flat leaf parsley leafs (this is about a 1/2 cup).  .

Directions:

(1) In a heavy pot, simmer the garlic and onion in the olive oil over medium to medium high heat until it is soft and translucent (do not brown).

(2) Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, pepper, water, wine and parsley.  Cover 3/4 of the pot with a lid and continue to cook over medium high heat until the tomatoes are soft (10 minutes or more).

(3) Remove the lid.  I like to squish the tomatoes in the pot with a potato masher very well at this point.  Continue to cook the sauce until it thickens and reduces by 50 to 75 percent and the peels from the tomato are very soft (for me this was 30 minutes).  Stir the sauce occasionally so the bottom does not burn.

Tip:  I use #7 on my stove top for medium high heat. Cook time for the sauce to thicken may vary depending on the type of tomatoes you use and their water content. You may add extra liquid during cooking if needed.