Due to the abundance of  fresh tomatoes in our garden I decided to try my hand at making homemade Marinara sauce.  I choose to use Giada De Laurentiis recipe for basic marinara with a few changes.  I was pleasantly surprised at how incredibly easy fast and delicious this recipe was.  I don’t think I will ever be able to go back to the jarred variety.  The tomato and garlic really came through.  I did however triple this recipe and added 3 lbs of meat for my carnivorous family.  My hubby wouldn’t dare eat a marinara sans meat.  He kept saying over and over, this is the best he’s ever had.  I don’t get sick of hearing that.

Ingredients: 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1 small onion, 2-4 garlic cloves, 1 celery stalk, 1 carrot, 1 bell pepper,  1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1 quart fresh tomatoes, diced or 32 oz diced canned tomatoes, 1 dried bay leave, 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
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start off finely chopping your onions, cut in half remove peel, then laying onion on its cut side, cut horizontally 3/4 through the onion

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Then cut small diagonally, the dice into small pieces

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While your chopping your onions, heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large stock pot

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Then take 3-4 cloves of garlic, pop with knife or bottom of a glass, and remove peel, chop finely

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Add onions and garlic to saute until translucent, about 8-10 minutes

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While onions are cooking, finely chop carrots, celery, and bell pepper

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Add the rest of the diced veggies, salt and pepper- let them cook another 10 minutes of so

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Then start dicing your fresh tomatoes till you reach 1 quart or just use 32 oz can of diced tomatoes

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Add to sauteed veggies

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Then add your bay leaves, and Italian seasonings

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then simmer on low heat until sauce thickens, about 1 hour

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Then if your like me, brown 1 lb ground beef and add to marinara, salt and pepper to taste.

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The reason I tripled this recipe despite having massive amounts of tomatoes, is that I wanted to freeze the sauce for later use.

So take 2 large freezer bags, label one with the date and contents

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Then take a large measuring cup, fill it up to desired ounces, for this case I did a 24 oz portion

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Pour into unlabeled freezer bag, and squeeze all the air out and seal

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Then put inside labeled freezer bag, squeeze all the air out and seal, then freeze!

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Perfect for Spaghetti, Eggplant Parmesan, several different types of pizza, 1, 2, 3 to be exact, lasagna or any other use you can think of.

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Print This Recipe
Marinara Sauce
taken from Giada De Laurentis

Ingredients

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

1 carrots, peeled and finely chopped

1 bell pepper, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 (32-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes

1 dried bay leaves

1/2 tsp Italian Seasonings

Directions

In a large pot, heat the oil over a medium-high flame. Add the onions and garlic and saute until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the celery, carrots, bell pepper and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Saute until all the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, bay leaves, Italian seasonings and simmer uncovered over low heat until the sauce thickens, about 1 hour. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Season the sauce with more salt and pepper, to taste.

(The sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Cool, then cover and refrigerate. Rewarm over medium heat before using.)

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25 Responses

  1. That sauce sounds really good! I’ve never made my own but should probably give it a go sometime 🙂

  2. I have never made my own, I will have to try this, it looks
    so good ! Thanks for stopping by my blog and sharing this great recipe. Have a very blessed day.

  3. you are so domestically talented. Unfortunately, my husband hates sauces with “stuff” in it and demands Ragu and Ragu only.

  4. Wow, this looks really really good. I usually just do tomatoes, onions, and garlic for my sauce but I really like the addition of the other veggies!

  5. What a great idea to use all those tomatoes. Thanks for sharing!
    ~Liz

  6. so smart to cook extras–I do that when I make my pesto sauce. I devote an entire Sunday in the summer to making my batches. It is soooo worth it in Dec. when we defrost one packet and have a delicious and speedy dinner.

  7. You have fresh tomatoes already?!?! We’re going to be putting our seedlings in the garden this week! I’ll wait to enjoy your yummy recipe until later in the summer when we have tomatoes.

  8. Oh, how I long for August — when tomatoes will be ripe and plentiful here in Wisconsin. Until then, we’ll make due with frozen garden tomatoes from last year… or locally canned tomatoes (definitely not the same!)

  9. Wonderful! Thanks for sharing with us at Food on Fridays. I have tomato blossoms, but no set fruit yet. How wonderful that you have fruit already. Thanks again.

  10. Looks great…and smart to make extras… I should do that more often! I hope you had a happy Foodie Friday and are having a great weekend ~ Susan

  11. I love the addition of the carrots. Talk about sweetnes and depth–and prettiness! My younger son used “jarred” Marinara last night, and he will LOVE a wonderful recipe like this. Thank you so much!
    XX 00

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