Our easy marinara sauce is made with fresh tomatoes, basil, garlic, onion, olive oil, and broth, then blended until smooth. It has a fresh tomato flavor with plenty of garlic and basil, and it works great over pasta and as a dipping sauce for breadsticks.

The finished marinara sauce poured over a bowl of pasta.

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This recipe has been on Berly’s Kitchen since 2017, and it’s still one of the simplest ways to turn fresh tomatoes into sauce. Everything gets a rough chop, cooks in one pot, and blends smooth. There’s no reason to spend forever dicing vegetables when they’re headed for the blender anyway.

We usually opt for Roma tomatoes, but San Marzano and beefsteak tomatoes work, too. Honestly, use whatever is on sale or growing in the garden. Spoon the sauce over spaghetti, use it on meatball subs, spread it over pizza, or layer it into lasagna.

Things to Know Before You Start

Once it’s blended, this marinara sauce is pinkish instead of the deep red you get from a jar. A few people have called it “anemic,” which is a pretty odd description for food, but I know what they mean. The lighter color is exactly how it should look, folks.

We usually use Roma tomatoes, but San Marzano and beefsteak tomatoes work, too. You can use whichever tomatoes are on sale or growing in the garden. In a pinch, replace the fresh tomatoes with one 28-ounce can of crushed or whole peeled tomatoes. Crush whole tomatoes before adding them to the pot.

We’ve also heard that fresh basil can become bitter when it cooks too long. We haven’t that happen with this recipe. The basil cooks with the tomatoes from the beginning and gives the finished sauce plenty of flavor.

For a thicker marinara, uncover the pot near the end of the cooking time and let more of the liquid cook off before cooling and blending the sauce.

To turn it into dinner, pair the marinara with our oven-baked meatballs and cheesy garlic bread. It also makes an easy sauce for puff pastry pizza.

How to Make Easy Marinara Sauce

The tomatoes, onions, garlic and other ingredients is a pan.

Give the ingredients a rough chop: Cut the tomatoes, onion, garlic, and basil into large pieces. They don’t need to be neat or evenly sized because the sauce gets blended after it cooks.

The ingredients have cooked down and cooled enough for blending.

Cook the sauce: Add the tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, olive oil, and broth to a medium stockpot. Cover and cook over medium heat for 45 to 65 minutes, adjusting the heat as needed to keep the sauce at a steady simmer. The tomatoes should break down and the onion should be soft.

If the sauce has more liquid than you want, remove the lid and let it continue cooking until it reaches the thickness you like.

The ingredients have been blended into a smooth marinara sauce.

Let it cool: Take the pot off the heat, remove the lid, and let the sauce cool for about 20 minutes. This makes it easier to transfer and blend.

Blend the sauce in a blender or food processor until smooth. You can also use an immersion blender right in the pot. Taste, then add salt and pepper as needed.