San Marzano Tomato Sauce is a marinara sauce to the next level! This rich and luscious sauce combines canned San Marzano tomatoes, sauteed veggies, garlic, fresh herbs, oil, butter, capers, salt, and black pepper.
Every mouthful is a flavor explosion - perfect for pasta, pizza, or other dishes that call for thick and delicious tomato sauce.
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❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- This San Marzano sauce is incredibly easy to make yet tastes like a rich and decadent sauce you’ve spent years perfecting!
- This luscious sauce is ideal to serve over your favorite pasta or to use in other recipes that call for marinara sauce.
- It’s an authentic Italian tomato sauce that uses simple ingredients, is naturally gluten-free, and stores well!
Make this sweet and smooth Italian tomato sauce, and you’ll never buy store-bought sauce again!
🛒 Ingredients
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Note: The full list of this recipe ingredients with their amounts and options are in the recipe card below.
- San Marzano tomatoes -- these tomatoes are imported from Italy and they're the real deal with the DOP seal.
- Capers -- add a bright, floral, briny taste to the sauce.
🗒 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Heat oil over medium heat in a heavy pot.
- Add the onion and garlic. Saute for 3 minutes.
- Add the celery and carrots.
- Season with salt and pepper. Cook the vegetables for 5 minutes or until they are soft.
- Add the tomatoes and capers.
- Add the basil and bay leaf. Smush the tomatoes.
- Mix well.
- Cover the skillet and simmer the mixture on low heat for an hour or until it has thickened.
- Remove the bay leaf and add the butter until melted.
- Taste and add extra butter if required.
🔪 Equipment
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You’ll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
- Heavy duty skillet
- Wooden mixing spoon
- Cutting board
- Sharp knife
🤔 FAQs
These are the questions we are most frequently asked about making a quick Marinara Sauce with San Marzano Tomatoes.
San Marzano tomatoes have low acidity, fewer seeds, and thicker tomato walls. The consistency and taste of the flavorful sauce from using these types of tomatoes are ideal for Italian cuisine!
This simple tomato sauce typically consists of canned San Marzano tomatoes, fresh garlic, oil, fresh herbs, salt, and black pepper. You can also add butter, capers, and vegetables.
The structure of these types of tomatoes is ideal for making sauces. These tomatoes have more flesh, less liquid, and fewer seeds.
San Marzano tomatoes are plum tomatoes named after the San Marzano region of Italy where the rich volcanic soil provides a mineral-rich environment for the best tomatoes.
Cento is the largest U.S. seller of gold standard authentic San Marzano tomatoes and is transparent with its labeling of where the tomatoes are grown - at the base of Mount Vesuvius in Campania, Italy.
San Marzano tomatoes are plum tomatoes. They are longer and thinner compared to regular plum tomatoes (fresh or canned). They are more pointed in the tip and have fewer seeds.
👩🏻🍳 Tips
- Adding butter to the acidic Italian red sauce helps smooth the acidic taste. Always start with 1 Tablespoon of butter and adjust as required.
- The carrots add sweetness to sauce, so I’ve made this ingredient optional.
- Reheat leftover sauce in a skillet over low heat. Simmer off any extra water from storage or add a splash if the sauce has thickened too much.
- Discard the bay leaf before serving the sauce.
📚 Variations
- Add Soffritto to this San Marzano tomato sauce recipe which will allow you to skip the step of having to saute the onion, celery, and carrots.
- Add a chick of heat to this delicious tomato sauce by incorporating some crushed red pepper flakes or chili powder.
- Add this delicious homemade tomato sauce to an immersion blender for a smoother consistency.
🥫 Storage
Store this tomato sauce in clean airtight jars or containers in the fridge for 3-5 days.
To preserve this tomato sauce for an extended shelf life, use a water bath canning process to sterilize the jars. Seal the filled jars well and store them in a cool and dry area for 6 months to 1 year!
Transfer this sauce to a Ziploc bag or airtight freezer container and store it in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw the frozen sauce in the fridge overnight or submerge the freezer bag in room temperature water.
📗 Related Recipes
- Spaghetti Meat Sauce - This rich and hearty pasta meat sauce consists of browned ground beef, veggies, red wine, and juicy tomatoes.
- Cherry Tomato Sauce With Basil - This Italian tomato sauce is made with cherry tomatoes for a zingy flavor. Toss the ingredients in a skillet, and you’re done!
- Tomato Bisque - This rich and creamy tomato bisque will warm you up from the inside out - great for lunch or dinner with crusty bread.
🍽 Serve with
Serve this San Marzano tomato sauce over your favorite pasta, smear it over crusty bread, use it as a base for homemade pizza, or incorporate it into other recipes and dishes that call for homemade marinara sauce. The use of this homemade red sauce is virtually limitless!
📞 Chiacchierata (chat)
The first time I made this recipe I was short on time. We had dinner guests coming over and I thought I had homemade marinara sauce in the freezer. Unfortunately that was NOT the case. What I had in the freezer was our homemade pizza sauce. I have used that sauce over pasta in a pinch, but I wanted more of a marinara sauce with dinner.
I remembered my Zia Lucia would take a can of San Marzano tomatoes, make a soffritto, add some seasoning to it along with garlic. The sauce turned out perfectly delicious. It was perfect over the orzo pasta I served with the Chicken Milanese. From that day forward I always make sure I have several cans of San Marzano tomatoes in our pantry.
Another traditional Italian recipe that uses San Marzano tomatoes is our delicious Tuscan tomato bread soup.
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📝 Recipe Card
San Marzano Tomato Sauce is a rich and luscious marinara sauce with authentic Italian flavors and minimal ingredients that can elevate any family recipe! Serve this tomato sauce over al dente pasta with a sprinkle of fresh herbs and grated cheese.
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
📖 Recipe
Quick and Simple San Marzano Tomato Sauce Recipe|Salsa di Pomodoro Rapida
Equipment Needed
- 12-inch cast iron skillet or deep saucepan
Ingredients
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ small onion chopped
- 1 large clove garlic chopped
- 1 stalk celery chopped
- ½ carrot opt. chopped
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper q.b. (quanto basta) to taste
- 1 28 oz. San Marzano peeled tomatoes in Sauce
- 2-3 fresh basil leaves rolled up and thinly sliced chiffonade
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 1 ½ Tablespoon rinsed capers
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
- In a medium size heavy pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute until soft and translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the celery, carrot (optional) and season with salt and pepper. Saute until all the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, rinsed capers, basil, and bay leaf. Smush the tomatoes with a wooden spoon. Simmer covered on low heat for about an hour or until thick. Remove the bay leaf and check for seasoning.
- To smooth out any type of acidic taste add 1 Tablespoon of the butter and mix until melted. Taste again and if you think it's needed add the other Tablespoon of butter. This should round out the flavors.
Notes
- If you have soffritto on hand you can skip the sauteing the onion, garlic, celery, carrot in the olive oil and add ½ cup soffritto.
- The reason the carrot is optional is because carrots sometimes have a tendency to make a sauce sweet -- it's your call.
Nutrition
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