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This 10 Minute Marinara Sauce is delicious and fast. It tastes so fresh and is a healthy alternative to using a jarred sauce with questionable ingredients.
10 Minute Marinara Sauce
I threw this recipe together one day out of necessity. I purchased a box of frozen mozzarella sticks and they were pictured on the package served with a nice, delicious looking marinara sauce. Upon opening the package....no marinara sauce was included. What the what?? Who does that?
I'm not inexperienced in purchasing mozzarella cheese sticks, so I know they normally come with a little package of passable marinara sauce. But, not this brand. I will refrain from naming names.
Anyway, I almost always have an array of canned tomato products in my pantry, so off to it I went.
Ingredients needed
- Extra virgin olive oil
- onion
- garlic
- basil
- canned tomatoes
- tomato sauce
- sugar
- salt and pepper
It's seriously as simple as dumping all of these ingredients in a pan and cooking it. I'm sort of glad that box didn't have the marinara sauce, since this tastes SO much better.
Next, I need to ditch the box of mozzarella sticks and make my own. I have a great idea that I'm going to try out in my air fryer!
Steps to make 10 Minute Marinara Sauce
Heat olive oil and sauté onions with salt and pepper until they begin to get soft. (2-3 minutes).
Add garlic to the pan. Sauté for another minute.
Add basil and cook for a minute until fragrant.
Add a can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and sugar. You may think that sugar sounds like a weird ingredient for a marinara sauce, but it's a great ingredient that cuts the "acid" of the tomatoes. If you've tried making a marinara or tomato based sauce before, and it seemed like something was missing, it's probably sugar!
Cook for 5 minutes until heated through. Taste to see if any additional salt and pepper are needed.
📋 Recipe
10 Minute Marinara Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- ⅓ cup yellow onion chopped
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 14.5 ounces fire-roasted diced tomatoes canned
- 8 ounces tomato sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- Heat olive oil and sauté onions with salt and pepper until they begin to get soft. (2-3 minutes).
- Add garlic to pan. Sauté for another minute.
- Add basil and cook for a minute until fragrant.
- Add fire-roasted diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and sugar. Cook for 5 minutes until heated through. Taste to see if any additional salt and pepper are needed.
Notes
Nutrition
Since I love dipping garlic bread in marinara sauce, my Cheesy Ranch Garlic Bread would be the perfect dipper!
Also, please check out the tons of amazing recipes from other talented bloggers on Southern Plate’s Meal Plan Monday post.
Monna Ellithorpe
Hi Teri,
I agree with you. Those boxed and frozen mozarella sticks and whatever they "pass off" as sauce is terrible.
I love the way you can just create your own of whatever you need with imagination and a well stocked pantry.
Thank you so much for sharing your ideas and great pictures of your creations.
I'm off to catch up on your other posts.
Teri
I usually have the "basics" on hand. Canned tomatoes are one of the basics that I keep in my pantry at all time.