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This homemade marinara sauce is made ultra-simply from scratch with fresh tomatoes, garlic, and herbs. No cans here, just delicious, fresh from the garden tomato sauce! With hundreds of five-star reviews, you can be sure this homemade tomato sauce will be a hit!
save this recipe!If it’s the peak of summer, your garden is churning out more tomatoes than you know what to do with, and you’re hungry…I have two words for you: homemade marinara.
More specifically, a homemade marinara with fresh tomatoes (no canned tomatoes or tomato paste here)! Because summer is all about celebrating that garden-fresh produce, and this marinara is the perfect way to celebrate.
Reader rating
“This is THE marinara sauce! When it was finished cooking and cooled, I tasted it and could not believe how delicious! When one of my daughters arrived for dinner I asked her to taste it just to be sure. She did but said nothing. I asked if it was all right. She said she was just savoring the flavor and didn’t want to interrupt that. Other guests said it was the best marinara they had ever eaten.” —Claudette
Most recipes will have you blanch the tomato to remove the skin, but I find that it’s unnecessary and takes too much time (plus, the skin has insoluble fiber – double win). Let’s cook!
What’s the best texture for marinara?
This homemade marinara sauce recipe is naturally chunky, but you can easily make it into a smooth and silky marinara with a quick blitz in the blender. I prefer to use a handheld immersion blender to puree it right in the pot, but you could also transfer it (carefully – hot!) to a countertop blender.
- Keep it chunky for use with your favorite pasta (like these vegetarian stuffed shells)
- Blend it smooth for use as a dipping sauce (like with air fryer mozzarella sticks!)
Homemade Marinara Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp olive oil, 15 mL
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 5 fresh tomatoes, 1 to 1.5 lbs, diced
- 2 Tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped
- 2 Tbsp Italian parsley, flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 1 Tbsp honey, 15 g
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
Instructions
- Tomatoes: Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until soft and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and allow to simmer uncovered until tomatoes have mostly broken down, about 25 minutes. Stir often to prevent burning.
- Herbs: Stir in remaining ingredients. Continue simmering about 10 minutes.
- Serve: You can serve it like this or puree it in a food processor or blender for a smoother sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information calculated by Sarah Bond, degreed nutritionist.
did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!Seasonal Tip
They say what grows together goes together, so why not use the fresh cucumber growing in your garden to make this easy tzatziki sauce? Serve it as a dip with veggies, as a side, or as an appetizer with this marinara!
Got fresh tomatoes?
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Just a btw!!! This isn’t vegan if you add honey since that’s an animal byproduct. Love the recipe though.
Thanks for pointing that out, Blue! I’ve been meaning to get back through a recheck things like this, thanks for helping 🙂 Glad you liked it!
This is the best sauce I have ever had, made my cabbage rolls really tasty!!!
YAY! So happy to hear, Paula! 😀
Delicious! Exacly what I was looking for! I added 1 small fresh red & green bell pepper & about a 1/3 of a yellow onion, also used oregano instead or parsley. Puréed, on angle hair spaghett., My 2 year old loved it! Thanks for sharing it!
So happy you liked it, Laura! 😀 Thanks for all the substitution tips!!
This tomato sauce was delicious! I have never tried to make it from scratch but I received a whole bunch of tomatoes in my CSA so used your recipe. Really the best tomato sauce I have ever had! I used the maple syrup instead of honey. Will be making this again!
So happy to hear, Paula! 😀 This recipe always gets so popular this time of year with everyone drowning in bunches of fresh tomatoes!
Perfect! Added a splash of balsamic and used an immersiin blender. It is sooo good
Yum, great idea Gillian! 😀
I used whatever tomatoes I had from my veggie garden including cherries and grape. I also added finely diced green peppers as I had an overabundance of them this year.
My Ex’s family is from Italy and Aunt Lena, came here at 19/20 yrs old, one time told me that her family never used sugar to cut the acid of the tomatoes but used carrots for the sugar in them. I used baby carrots as they are the sweetest and put them in my Ninja and then in the pot, this adds a lot of extra nutrients into the sauce, which is great when you have kids that do not like veggies, I did not have the problem. Added several additional spices oregano, tarragon, sage( this is a strong spice so less is better), marjoram, rosemary and thyme.
Love the basic recipe as it is quick and easy as I did not blanch the tomatoes.
Using baby carrots is brilliant! Deeper color, more healthy, and better taste. Triple win! Happy this could be your base recipe for what sounds like a very delicious marinara! 😀
Can u tell me about how many cups of diced tomatoes I would need for this recipe?
Great question, Donna! You’ll need about 5 cups of diced tomatoes.
Tried this recipe because even now in 2020 all recipes include canned tomatoes! This was AMAZING!!! No more canned sauce! Thank you
Yay! Enjoy! 😀
My family said that this was the best sauce I ever made. I used a lot more tomatoes to make more. Now I know what to do with all of the tomatoes that I am growing this year. I don’t want to go back to using a canned or jarred sauce. Thank you!
So happy to hear it! I’m already so excited for tomato season 😀
How much sauce does this recipe yield for a pound of pasta??
It yields about 2 cups, which will be good for about 1 pound of pasta 😀