I married into an Italian family, and as such, several things are a given:
- Family gatherings will be loud
- There will always be a faint aroma of basil and garlic in the house
- Learning to make a delicious and authentic homemade pasta sauce is high on the to-do list for a new wife
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Why Homemade Pasta Sauce?
When I married into the family, I became privy to Nonna’s (my husband’s grandmother) pasta sauce recipe that uses pre-canned tomato sauce and diced tomatoes (that she probably canned herself). One year I attempted to mimic the recipe using fresh tomatoes since we had an abundance from our garden and came up with my own pasta sauce recipe. It’s great on homemade “spaghetti” and meatballs.
I’m sharing my variations of both today:
How to Make Pasta Sauce from Fresh or Canned Tomatoes
If you are working from fresh tomatoes, use the first recipe. If you are using canned tomatoes, use the second.
While “Nonna’s Recipe” is still the gold standard of pasta sauce in our family, I’m not sure I’m allowed to share the secret recipe so I’m sharing my variations instead. I know that I can share one part of her secret, which is to throw a piece of a carrot into the sauce while it is cooking to absorb the acidity of the tomatoes and create a sweeter sauce. This also removes the need for a sweetener to cut down the acidity.
Homemade Pasta Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes
Homemade Pasta Sauce Recipe
Servings
Nutrition
Notes
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10-Minute Pasta Sauce from Canned Tomatoes
If a two-hour simmer time isn’t your thing, this 10-minute recipe tastes almost as good and cooks in much less time. This is my go-to on a busy night when I have 20 minutes to turn a pound of ground beef into dinner. We serve with zucchini or other vegetable noodles for a great flavor.
Pasta Sauce Ingredients:
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 8 cloves fresh garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 (28-ounce) cans or jars of whole, crushed or stewed tomatoes (or 4 15-ounce cans)
- 1 (6-ounce) can or jar of tomato paste
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon dried basil leaves (or 1/4 cup fresh, finely chopped)
- 2 bay leaves (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
Pasta Sauce Instructions:
- Heat the olive oil in a medium size pot over medium heat. Add onions and saute until soft, about 5 minutes
- Add garlic and saute another minute.
- Then, add tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, basil, bay leaves, thyme and salt/pepper.
- Bring to a boil and immediately reduce to a simmer.
- Simmer for 10-15 minutes to let flavors meld. (Can simmer longer if desired for a thicker sauce with a deeper flavor).
- Serve over pasta of choice.
- Optional: for a thinner sauce that works better for pizza, chicken parmesan, etc, use an immersion blender to blend until smooth.
How to Use Homemade Pasta Sauce
You probably already have a recipe in mind since you’re reading this post, but this is endlessly versatile and great in many recipes. The fresh tomato recipe variation is great for tomato season, and I often can any extras to use in the winter.
I use this sauce in:
- Homemade meat sauce by adding 1-2 pounds of browned ground beef and serving over zucchini or shirataki noodles
- Zucchini Lasagna
- Meatza
- Chicken Cacciatore (in place of the tomato sauce/paste/spices)
- Chicken Parmesan
- etc.
How to Can Your Own Pasta Sauce
You can easily make a large batch of either of these sauces and can it for future use. I often do this when we have an abundance of tomatoes from the garden. There is really no reason to can the recipe made from canned tomatoes, since it is so quick to whip up and there is no need for the extra step.
Canning Instructions for Homemade Tomato Sauce
I follow these instructions for canning my homemade tomato sauce. There is some debate if it is ok to water bath can tomato products or not. The general consensus seems to be that tomatoes are iffy for water bath canning because the pH is not quite acidic enough. One solution is to add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice per quart for canning or check the pH to make sure it is 4.4 or below.
Personally, I prefer to just pressure can according to my pressure canner instructions as the pressure is enough to kill any botulism spores and is considered safe for tomatoes.
How to Freeze Homemade Tomato Sauce
If canning isn’t your thing, you can also freeze this homemade sauce. I like to freeze in quart size glass mason jars (here’s how) or metal containers, to avoid plastic. You can also freeze this sauce in any container once it has cooled.
This sauce is simmering right now. Had to use canned san marzano tomatoes, but it is full of flavor from the spices and other fresh ingredients. Looking forward to dinner tonight!
Amazing pasta sauce!
I can’t wat to try this recipe.
Hello – I made your canned tomato sauce recipe and really liked it. Now I want to duplicate but using fresh tomatoes and canning them in quart jars. The ingredients in your fresh tomato sauce recipe differ from the “Pick Your Own” recipe link – can I use your ingredients (plus the lemon juice) and then follow their instructions for how to prepare, cook and can the jars?
Thanks
Sarah
This is probably a silly question but I’m going to ask it anyway. Why do you take out the fresh herbs? I would rather use fresh out of my garden but wouldn’t chopping them up and leaving them in there make it taste better? Other than quantity does it really matter since you would leave the dried herbs except the bay leaves in there?
There seem to be a lot of the same questions asked, but I read them all and didn’t see the answer to mine so here goes. I am overrun with cherry and grape tomatoes from the garden this year and want to try to make sauce from them. I can’t imagine peeling and seeding 5 or 10 lbs of their small size! Would they work in this recipe if I don’t peel and seed them? Or is there a shortcut to peeling them you know of? Thank you for your time. Looking forward to trying your recipe.
I haven’t tried any tomatoes that small…
Terri, I’ll often throw them on a parchment lined pan with garlic, sliced onions, and some sea or kosher salt and roast on 350° for about 30 minutes. I’ll let them cool, throw them in food processor, and blend them. It makes a good base for another sauce or just good like that. I’ll do this with tomatoes that are on the brink of going bad and then stockpile it in the freezer (again, no plastic, the acid leaches the chemicals and the flavor of the plastic) and then throw it all in a pot down the road.
I made this with fresh tomatoes and added a little chili. It’s so delicious you can eat it alone!
Can I use the 2 hour recipe but with canned tomatoes? Or is that too long for canned tomatoes??
I just made this with the canned tomatoes and it was amazing…the first time my pasta sauce was this good. I love my food right now. 🙂 Thank you so so much!
What if I make sauce from fresh fomatoes but DON’T PEEL them, only dice them? I know bits of skin would appear in the sauce and would probably not be digestible. But would it change the flavor?
I haven’t tried that before…
Well, then, now I have to try it to let you know. Thanks for all you do.
I’ve been looking for a homemade sauce for a while now. One that has no chunks in it at all. When the sauce is finished is it ok to put it in a blender until smooth? I’ve done that with Ragu and it separates weird. Pretty gross! Your recipe says that it will be thinner, what can I do to thicken it? I plan on making the recipe with the fresh tomatoes. Also what is the best way to defrost the sauce if I freeze it? Thank you so much for your help.
I’m currently making the sauce now, and I’m a little confused about letting the it simmer. There’s currently no liquid in the pot. I did cut everything down to a quarter of the recipe, but I ended up just adding more oil, as that was the only liquid used in the fresh tomato recipe. If anyone has made this or is just a more experienced cook then I am can you help me out. I’ll let you know how my current try turns out.
Is the raw tomato weight with orwithout without seeds?
I have tried numerous times and recipes to make a great or even good pasta sauce. I used Cento Italian canned tomatoes and blended them a bit with an immersion blender in the cooking pan. I added 2 medium carrots and blended them after they softened as the sauce was still to acid for my taste. All the herbs were dried and after 4 hours of simmer with 2 lbs of ground sirloin burger this sauce recipe recieved 5 out of 5 stars from my family. Best I have made and possibly best I have ever had. Thanks for posting it. Can hardly wait until local tomatoes are in season to make the fresh tomato recipe!
This sounds delicious, thanks so much for sharing. If I wanted to add some heat to this sauce (the fresh tomato recipe one) what would you recommend? Fresh chopped chilies or dried chilli flakes? I also love to make tomato sauce with red pepper flakes. And that stage during the recipe would you say its best to add this?
Hey! Love the recipe I plan to make it for dinner but for the yield, I’m new at cooking so does it feed 6-8 people? Or what does it mean?
Yes, 6-8 servings atop whatever kind of noodles you serve 🙂
No Italian in northeastern Pennsylvania would ever use thyme in sauce!
The recipes sound solid, but you do need to rename your 10-minute sauce to at least 30-minute, probably more like 45-minute sauce. The times stated in the recipe are 15 to 20 minutes (thus definitely not 10 minutes), but cooks also need to allow time for the sauce to come to a boil (at least 5 but probably more like 10 minutes), plus you don’t allow for prep/chopping time. Even your very cute infographic calls for much more than 10 minutes. I suggest renaming it to 45-minute sauce.
The prep time for your fresh sauce is a minimum 30 minutes, not the 10 minutes stated, and that’s for an experienced cook. There is no way that fresh tomatoes can be blanched, peeled, and chopped in 10 minutes, never mind chopping and grating the other vegetables. I’d even give it longer as cooks unfamiliar with the recipe or using fresh tomatoes will be slower with the process. I suggest indicating 45 minutes prep.
No need to publish this comment, just some notes from a long-time cooking teacher.
when making the 10 minute sauce do you drain the cans of tomatoes or pour liquid and tomatoes in?
Hi could you please tell me how many jars would it make with using the 5lbs of tomatoes and all the other ingredients or is it just 2 jars. I am in Australia so we work in grams and cups.
Thanks heaps love the recipe 🙂