fresh tomato marinara sauce



i could eat this sauce by itself. it has such a bright delightful tomato flavor, with just the right amounts of sweet and tart and fresh. please please use the yummiest garden tomatoes you can find, no blando supermart 'matoes here please. in the wintertime, i use a couple of quarts of bottled tomatoes. i simmer this sauce at least an hour. two hours is better: the longer this simmers, the better. i hear if you wander into an italian kitchen there is often a pot of marinara simmering the afternoon away at the back of the stovetop.

so ya, removing tomato skins is not my favorite thing to do, but in my instructions you use the same pot for cooking and blanching, so you have no extra pots to wash and it just adds a few minutes of extra prep work. it is worth removing the skins. the sauce will have a softer, sweeter flavor, and since the skins never break down, the texture is ten thousand times better. trust me.

serve this over fresh homemade pasta, in lasagne or baked ziti, as a dip for calzones, or over chicken parmigiana. use any leftovers for homemade pizza the next day.


fresh tomato marinara sauce
an original recipe by rachelle
8 big garden tomatoes, or 10 romas (must be garden fresh. no blando supermart tomatoes! if you must, use a couple big 28 oz cans/quarts of tomatoes.)
1/2 onion, chopped
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 bay leaf
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

drop half of the tomatoes into boiling water in a big stockpot and boil for 45 seconds. remove to a big bowl of ice water. repeat with the other half of the tomatoes. peel dump the water out of the stockpot to use for sauce. set aside.

chop the onion. preheat the oil in the stockpot. (sure you could use less oil, but it adds richness and flavor. minimum 2 Tbsp. ok.) drop the onion in the oil and soften for 5 mins over medium heat.

working quickly, peel the skins off of the tomatoes, they should slide right off after you break the skin. cut out cores and cut tomatoes into big 2-3 inch chunks. (they cook so long, they break down. you can cut them in huge quarters.)

drop the tomatoes into the pot with the onions. add in all of the tomatoes, the garlic and the bay leaf. bring to a boil. hard simmer for a half hour.

add basil, oregano, salt, and sugar. adjust seasonings to taste. (it just depends on your tomatoes. sometimes you need more or less salt, more sugar, just taste. but for heavens sakes, blow on the spoon alot before you taste. just a tip i've come by the hard way. six thousand times.)


hard simmer another half hour. liquid should have boiled down and reduced by about half. stir in balsamic vinegar. taste, maybe add another teaspoon balsamic.

24 comments:

  1. YUMMMMMM, this is my kind of recipe, real sauce without all the nasty stuff that gets put in a store bought jar. Thank you AGAIN!

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  2. Ok here i am again - I made this the other night with my bottled tomatoes and Yummy, a family favorite for sure. Jared made the comment "I'm sure glad Rachelle moved here" ha ha me too!!!

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  3. My mom and I just finished making oodles and oodles of the marinara! Thanks for the simple fabulous recipe!! I'll think of you every time I serve it to my family!!

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  4. you're welcome you guys! we love this too. i just made another batch. yum!

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  5. Hi! I am Meghan's sister. She told me about this recipe and I have a bunch of fresh tomatoes from my garden so I decided to try this tonight and boy was it good!!!! WOW!! I loved it! I also made your yummy meatballs and they were perfect with it! My 3 year old had like 6 of 'em and they were big!! Thanks for the great recipe and keep 'em coming!!

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  6. kristen, i'm so glad you guys loved it! and getting a 3 year old to eat anything is an accomplishment (i know, i have one too,) so i'll take that compliment! thank you for telling me. it makes my day!
    you're welcome whenev!
    hugs!
    rachelle

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  7. I just came across your recipe recently and wanted to say thanks! Very easy and sooo good!

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  8. you're so welcome! this recipe is a far and away favorite, it is the #1 recipe on my blog. i'm so happy to share it, food love is true love! welcome! :)

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  9. Amazing. I made this with the meatballs. I didn't change alot, which is saying something because I tend to do that. I added more garlic and sugar to sauce and sliced mushrooms. Yum. I also added a tiny bit of bellpepper to the onion and garlic before processing for the meatballs(I'm a louisiana girl, I think everything needs bellpepper :D)and I partially cooked meatballs in oven before adding to simmering sauce. SUPERB! Thank you so much!

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  10. Thanks Niki, so glad it turned out yummy! :)

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  11. Really wonderful! I made this for my larger family (parents, sister, nieces, husband) and everyone loved it. My father even went back for seconds which almost never happens :)Sarah

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  12. I tried the marinara this weekend with fresh tomatoes. My sauce ended up all soupy. Any suggestions on what I may have done wrong. It did taste great though.

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  13. We made this sauce tonight for dinner and we only had enough for 2 servings. Very little. It tastes amazing! We used the 10 Roma tomatoes. Is there anything else we should have done? How many more tomatoes?

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  14. yum! just made this with some fresh heirloom tomatoes from my garden. very good! thanks!!

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  15. Oh my goodness! This is so yummy! I've made tomato sauce before with store bought tomatoes and it always came out very acidic (not tasty at all). But I've recently found a local farm where I can buy my weekly produce and the tomatoes have been divine this summer. I decided to try to make some sauce again and I'm so happy I did. This is thick, sweet, and totally the best tomato sauce I've ever had. I am going to buy all tomatoes next saturday when I go back to the farm and will can the sauce for use during the winter! Thanks so much for this recipe! YUMM-O!!!!

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  16. A friend at work brought in some 50lbs!!! of Roma tomatoes to share. Yours was the first recipe I came across using fresh tomatoes - and no reason to look further. I was a little confused as you seemed to indicate some of the water would be used, but never referred back to it. Anyway I used about a cup of water and the last glass of a great cabernet sauvignon as it seemed a little dry, used fresh basil and threw in a little fresh cilantro. It's still cooking but the ounce or so I've tasted is incredible! I'm so glad I made a double batch!!

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  17. Tried this with my 2 lbs of tomatoes from last summer that I had in the freezer--FABULOUS! What a lovely touch to add the balsamic vinegar. This was my first attempt at homemade marinara; it will be hard to go back to the jarred stuff now!

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  18. Please tell me what I did wrong. I have been "cooking" my marinara for over an hour now and all I have is tomatoes with garlic and onion mixed in. Nothing broke down. I do not have sauce. Is there a step missing that I wasn't smart enough to think of?

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  19. Mine is on the stove now. I had five gallons of fresh tomatoes so I hope this recipe is as good as you all say. I'm about to have a LOT of marinara to can.

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  20. I'm doing a quarter of this, using three cups of fresh tomatoes, right off my vine. I used a little more garlic and a little more wine than called for. Otherwise, I'm following it almost to the letter.

    Instead of blanching & shocking, I halve my tomatoes and use a box grater to get all the inner goodness.

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  21. This was the best tomato sauce recipe I've tried yet. Thanks for sharing it!

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  22. This was delicious!
    But I found it to be more chunky than saucy, even with taking a potato masher to it a few times. It was still DELICIOUS, but I'm wondering if I did something wrong or if there's anything I can do to make it more runny? (I even added a bit of water while simmering and still came out thick & chunky)

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  23. The recipe says "dump the water out of the stockpot to use for sauce. set aside." - but when do you use this water? I followed the recipe to a T and its very pasty. But the taste is delicious. Should I add the water from boiling the tomatoes? I also went from a large stockpot down to a very tiny sauce pan! Seems like the recipe should make more.

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  24. I've made your marinara with tomatoes from my garden for several years now and shared your blog post with countless others- this is just phenomenal. Thanks for sharing!!

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