Because of a special diet I can't use canned tomatoes or paste so I just subbed the same amount of fresh diced tomatoes. There was enough juice from the tomatoes to make it just right. Also I used 4 cloves of garlic because of personal taste. The addition of fresh basil and oregeno made this dish exceptional.
There may be better recipes out there for marinara sauce but I gave this 5 stars just because I made it exactly as the recipe stated and it was tasty--plus it was super easy and quick and the ingredients are all things you tend to have on hand.
Husband says not to bother buying sauce any more after eating this. Changes: added some black pepper Italian seasonings parsley & basil. Used a (drained) can of diced tomatoes w/ garlic & mushrooms. Could use diced tomatoes w/ jalapeno for more of a kick.
This was delicious. My changes: 2 tsp sugar 1 tsp oregano 1 tsp basil 1 tsp salt then I pureed the sauce (my kids like it better that way). I doubt I will buy marinara at the store anymore.
This is a really good basic recipe. Personally I use canned whole tomatoes (the closest thing you can get to fresh tom's imo) that I split with my fingers remove the seeds (which only make the sauce bitter) then roughly chop. Depending on what I'm using it for I use a hand blender to puree the sauce until it is as smooth/chunky as required (smooth for marinara dipping sauce chunky for pizza sauce chunkier for pasta sauce etc). Something else I do (I saw this on tv) is to save the dry rinds from Parmesan and add those to the sauce. Remove them when you're done and you've got a lovely subtle flavor. Anyway I'm looking forward to having this later for dinner with 'Sicilian Meat Roll.' Thanks Betsy!
I have been making this sauce for years except we prefer basil instead of oregano. In a pinch or for a quick sauce use dried minced onion and garlic salt. And for a more elaborate sauce add this recipe to any jar of spagetti sauce. Don't be afraid to experiment with different ingredients to find what tastes best to you.
Great basic sauce. I didn't have an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce so I used a 6 oz. can of tomato paste and added 4 ounces of water. Let it simmer covered for quite a while until dinner was ready. Added a little fresh basil and no salt. Had this with Fast and Friendly Meatballs from this site whole wheat angel hair and steamed broccoli.
This was great! Simple and tasty. I prefer a smoother sauce so I blended the onion garlic and diced tomatos in the food processor then added that to the rest of the ingredients. Wonderful!
This recipe is delicious! I added some sauteed mushrooms and green peppers to the sauce to add something a little extra. I love this sauce. It's so easy to make and change to your liking.
There wasn't much sauce - it was mainly chunks of tomato and onion. It tasted fine - it just needed to be saucier.
