A basic homemade marinara sauce is easy to make at home! No need to buy the jars in the store.  Serve this on spaghetti, use to make pizza sauce or try it in an easy lasagna recipe.

Growing up my mother always made what we called spaghetti sauce, but I now call marinara, from scratch.  She used tomato paste and sauce in a can and a packet of spaghetti sauce seasoning.  I, however, seemed to lack the spaghetti sauce magic because try as I might I never made a good sauce from scratch.

Then one day a few months ago I got a manicure  for our family pictures.  My manicurist was Italian and she gave me tips on making a good marinara.  It worked!  I have successfully made my own marinara sauce many times since then.

I do not use canned tomatoes because I am concerned about the BPA lining in the cans. Instead I used jarred or boxed tomatoes When I’m really ambitious I make homemade tomato sauce. Feel free to use whatever works for you! My recipe calls for 2 cups of water, but use more or less to get the consistency you want. The same goes for the tomatoes.  I usually rinse out my containers with water to get all the tomato goodness out.

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Yield: 6-8 cups

Homemade Marinara

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Feel free to use whatever veggies or spices you like the best! Keep tasting as the sauce cooks and adjust your seasonings.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 8 hours

Total Time 8 hours 15 minutes

Ingredients

• I onion, finely diced
• 3 carrots, finely diced
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
• 24 ounces tomato sauce
• 7 ounces tomato paste
• About 2 cups water
• A pinch of sugar
• Italian seasonings, to taste
• Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Heat about 1 Tablespoon olive oil in a large pan. Add onions, garlic and carrot. Saute until tender, about 7-8 minutes. Place onion mixture in the crock of slow cooker.
2. Saute mushrooms in the same pan as the onion mixture until mushrooms have cooked down. Add cooked mushrooms to the slow cooker.
3. Add rest of ingredients to your slow cooker and stir to mix.
4. Cook on high until sauce is bubbling. Then turn down to low.
5. Cook for about 8 hours total.

Notes

You can also cook this on the stove in a large pot. Just add mushrooms to sauteed onion mixture and cook. Then add rest of ingredients and allow to cook on low for 6-8 hours.