Marinara Sauce


       Peppers and onion

       Chop before
       food processing

       Peppers and onion
       ready for cooking

       Peppers and onion
       fried in oil

      Thinly slice/chop garlic

      Ready to eat with pasta

Number served:

Ingredients:

  • brown onions - 1 onion
  • sweet red pepper (bell pepper) - 1 cup
  • olive oil - 1/3 cup
  • fresh garlic (peeled and chopped) - 5 clove
  • fresh basil (chopped) - 1/3 cup
  • salt - 1 teaspoon
  • black pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
  • red pepper flakes - 1 teaspoon
  • canned chopped tomatoes - 4 cup
  • water - 12 fl
  • dry pasta (uncooked spaghetti) - 2 cup

Directions:

Note that you can substitute fresh chopped tomatoes for all or some of the canned tomatoes.

Put 1/3 of the olive oil in a large heavy pan and start to heat to low temperature while chopping the onion and red bell peppers in a food processor. Chop either coarsely of finely depending on how smooth you want your Marinara Sauce.

Fry the onion and red bell peppers over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, stirring often. While you are doing this peel the garlic and chop it finely. Lower the heat and add the garlic and continue stirring frequently for about 5 minutes. While you are stirring open the canned tomatos (or sauce with diced tomatoes - your choice). With medium heat, add the tomato sauce and another 1/3 of the olive oil and stir often to mix all the ingredients. After about 10 minutes, add half the water, stir well, reduce the heat and cover. I cook the sauce under very low heat for about 3 hours but you can reduce the cooking time if you need to. I set an alarm to go off every 20 minutes to remind me to stir the sauce and add a little bit of water if the sauce is very thick. About 5 minutes before turning off the heat I add the final 1/3 of the olive oil to the sauce. I usually let the sauce sit for 15 or 20 minutes after it is done before serving over pasta.

Cook your favorite pasta as per the directions on the package and serve with sauce.

Pro tip: this recipe is a lot of work so I usually make a very large quantity of Marinara Sauce and freeze some of it for future use.

This Marinara sauce is useful as a base for other recipes and is delicious to eat as-is.

Get creative: based on the statistics of over 100,000 recipes, here are some other ingredients that are commonly used with the ingredients in this recipe that you might want to experiment by adding one or two of the following (amounts adjusted assuming you making 6 servings):

  • sweet red onions : 3 tablespoon
  • balsamic vinegar : 3/4 tablespoon
  • fresh rosemary : 1/3 teaspoon
  • coconut oil : 1 1/2 teaspoon
  • fresh thyme : 1/3 teaspoon
  • kale : 1/3 cup
  • red wine vinegar : 3/4 tablespoon
  • dried thyme : 1/3 teaspoon
  • cumin seeds : 1/3 teaspoon
  • dried oregano : 1/3 teaspoon

Approximate nutrients
per serving
(% daily requirement):


  • iron 82%

    brown onions: 3%
    sweet red pepper: 5%
    olive oil: 3%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 69%

  • vitamin_c 73%

    brown onions: 2%
    sweet red pepper: 42%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 28%

  • fat_mono_unsaturated 37%

    olive oil: 37%

  • copper 36%

    brown onions: 1%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 35%

  • vitamin_e 32%

    sweet red pepper: 2%
    olive oil: 10%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 18%

  • vitamin_b6 28%

    brown onions: 2%
    sweet red pepper: 5%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 20%

  • sugar 18%

    brown onions: 2%
    sweet red pepper: 2%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 14%

  • niacin 15%

    sweet red pepper: 1%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 13%

  • manganese 15%

    brown onions: 1%
    sweet red pepper: 1%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 11%

  • vitamin_k 15%

    sweet red pepper: 1%
    olive oil: 7%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 6%

  • carbohydrate 13%

    brown onions: 1%
    sweet red pepper: 1%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 10%

  • potassium 13%

    sweet red pepper: 1%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 12%

  • thiamin 12%

    brown onions: 1%
    sweet red pepper: 1%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 10%

  • riboflavin 10%

    sweet red pepper: 1%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 8%

  • vitamin_a_rae 10%

    sweet red pepper: 5%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 4%

  • magnesium 9%

    canned chopped tomatoes: 9%

  • phosphorus 8%

    brown onions: 1%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 7%

  • fiber 8%

    brown onions: 1%
    sweet red pepper: 1%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 6%

  • food_folate 7%

    brown onions: 1%
    sweet red pepper: 2%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 3%

  • energy_in_kcal 7%

    olive oil: 4%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 3%

  • folate_total 7%

    brown onions: 1%
    sweet red pepper: 2%
    canned chopped tomatoes: 3%

  • fat_saturated 7%

    olive oil: 7%

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