For lasagna, ziti, and eggplant, I’ve used this straightforward tomato sauce. spaghetti, Parmesan, and meatballs. It works well with just about anything!
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 15 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- ½ cup minced onion
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
- 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
- ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried basil
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large, heavy pot over medium heat. Cook and stir onion and garlic in hot oil until tender, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Stir crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and water into onion mixture until smooth; add sugar, parsley, basil, salt, Italian seasoning, fennel, and pepper. Stir well and bring to a simmer; reduce heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Reviews
This. Was. Awesome! I could not stop smelling and tasting it! I was trying to find a sauce similar to prego but this just tastes so fresh, I doubt I will buy jarred sauce unless I absolutely have to. The only issue I had was the sauce exploding and getting a burn on my forehead even though I had it on the lowest heat (human error though). Even with that slight issue, it was worth it! Thank you so much for the recipe!
Excellent
FENNEL! I have never even thought about adding fennel when I’ve tried Frankensteining a tomato sauce together! Fennel is what I’ve been missing all of this time! You seriously have no idea how many times I’ve gone to make a “quick” meal of spaghetti after a day of work i had 2 hungry growing bottomless pit boys screeching that they’re hungry and I realize I am out of the simple jar of spaghetti sauce! So I toss a can of sauce, paste, and crushed tomatoes and have attempted to cobble something resembling the jar. I’ve tried a combo of every single ingredient you’ve listed except for the fennel! You dear lady, are a genius! In the past, the method was: tiny taste, hmmm bland, maybe more oregano? Taste. Nope still bland. More Italian seasoning! Taste. Nope. More basil. Taste. Nope. Thyme is kinda Italian, right? Taste. Nope. This would continue until the boys started gnawing on my leg and I’d give up. They would immediately eat everything in sight and be happy because they are boys that didn’t care what it tasted like because FOOD! It was me who wasn’t satisfied. Fennel was the secret ingredient! THANK YOU!! This was awesome! The boys are now adults, so they are no longer garbage disposals masquerading as humans, and they gave this the seal of approval, as did I! FENNEL! I followed this exactly and it was easy and perfect and quite frankly awesome!
Very easy to do. Did not add sugar because I don’t like a sweet sauce.
Absolutely fantastic. This is the closest recipe to my mother’s Italian all day sauce that I have come across. No more over the counter sauce for me.
Perfect pasta sauce base. You can add other mix in’s like mushrooms, spinach, peppers. I added some garlic powder, oregano, onion powder, and crushed red pepper.
OMG! I never made tomato sauce before but this is the best sauce I’ve ever eaten… I made it one morning and the only I added was some pepper flakes for some heat; and it made the house smell good lol.. Couldn’t stop my husband and my three boys from dipping bread into the simmering sauce. It was excellent sauce and thank you for sharing it.
This recipe is amazing! I’ve made it 2 ways. Once exactly like the recipe says(and it was amazing) and the 2nd time, I used 1 less can of tomato paste and an extra tablespoon of sugar because I like sweeter tomato sauce. Soooooooo good! I will never buy premade tomato sauce again!
This was delicious! My husband says I’m not allowed to ever buy pre-made sauce again. Thanks for sharing!
I was really happy with this recipe. I did add about 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper, as I was wanting something a little spicy. I will add a bit more next time. Also I used brown sugar instead of white. Really good!
I made this as written and it is excellent…my only thought is the salt…it is very salty. I’m not going to add salt next time and it’ll likely be perfect. Thank you!
I used diced tomatos already seasoned with Italian spices so all i had to do was saute the onions and garlic then pour in the cans. No spices needed!
Easy AND yummy!!! Mixed a shallot in with the onions, changed the Italian seasoning to Oregano and used brown sugar instead of white! 2nd servings seal of approval from my boys = happy momma!
I’ve clicked the “made it” button only three times but I’ve made it far more often than that over the last few months. This is now my go-to tomato sauce recipe. The recipe is very good as is but is also very adaptable. I’ve altered it many ways, almost always starting with browning ground meat (moose, elk, turkey or beef), omitted fennel seeds sometimes, replaced sugar with stevia powder or just skipped it, ect. I’ve made lasagna, served it over regular pasta, spaghetti squash, green beans, gluten-free pasta. All were wonderful. Today I intend to attempt it in my slow cooker. I’ll update with how it turns out. Thank you for sharing such a good recipe!
Excellent! Next time I’m adding some garlic cloves in, too.
I was looking for a heartier sauce than a simple tomato sauce. This is it! I used it to make chicken parmesan. Thank you for an easy delish sauce.