Deliciously easy homemade pasta sauce

If you want all the quality and flavor of a restaurant style pasta sauce at home, this is your recipe! This homemade pasta sauce is incredibly easy yet tastes like you’ve been cooking it all day, with the tangy taste of tomatoes, sweet garlic, and tangy herbs cooked into a thick, dreamy sauce.

Why this is my favorite pasta sauce:

Pasta is a comforting, familiar, and easy meal to make for your family. There are definitely many times I use a jar of pasta sauce and there is nothing wrong with that! But this homemade pasta sauce is so easy I can make it in less time than it takes my pasta to cook!

The taste of this pasta sauce is so fresh and amazing that it has become my go-to sauce recipe. Not only is it delicious on pasta, but also on chicken, as a dip for breadsticks, quesadillas or grilled cheese, on a sub sandwich or even on scrambled eggs!

Ingredients for homemade pasta sauce

• olive oil – adds flavor, texture and brings out the flavors of onion, garlic and celery in your sauce.
• butter – adds a super creamy buttery flavor. Trust me – you will want to add it.
• Onion – finely chopped – it will be mixed at the end so don’t worry about chunks – it’s for flavor.
• Garlic – a key ingredient in this flavorful sauce. You can use pre-hacked or hack it yourself.
• celery – adds a crisp taste. It’s optional, but I love this sauce with it.
• Herbs – You will need dried oregano and fresh basil. If you don’t have fresh you can use dried, but in my opinion fresh is much better.
• Crushed tomatoes – a 28-ounce can of good old mashed tomatoes.

How to Make Pasta Sauce at Home (In Under 20 Minutes)

Of course you can simmer this sauce for as long as you like, but in my experience the short cooking time is still very tasty and makes this pasta sauce much more accessible than many other recipes.

1. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and butter over high heat. Add chopped onions and celery and sauté until soft and beginning to turn golden brown.
2. Add garlic and stir constantly for another 2 minutes to allow garlic to work its magic without burning.
3. Turn the heat to medium-high and add the dried oregano, salt, pepper, and sugar. Stir and cook for another minute.
4. Add mashed tomatoes, scraping the bottom well to deglaze your pan. Add water and stir to combine everything. The sauce will get thicker from here. So if it’s already too thick for you, add an additional 1/4 cup of water.
5. Turn the heat down to low and add fresh basil leaves. Let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. You can simmer as long as you like and the sauce will only get thicker and spicier. Serve over pasta and enjoy!

Tips & Suggestions:

add meat. Turn this easy pasta sauce into a hearty meat sauce by adding a pound of ground turkey, beef or sausage with the onions and celery.

Use fresh tomatoes. In season, I like to use fresh garden tomatoes instead of canned tomatoes. Roma tomatoes are my favorite. To do this, place your fresh tomatoes in a pot of boiling water until the skin begins to peel off. Immediately place them in a bowl of ice water and remove the skin. Place them in a food processor and pulse until you get the consistency you want.

Add flavor enhancers. This is a delicious, easy pasta sauce recipe. You can mix it up by adding some grated parmesan, stirring in a knob of butter or some heavy cream, adding a teaspoon of sugar and using additional dried herbs like basil, thyme, parsley, crushed red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning or tossing with a drizzle of really good olive oil .

For a super smooth pasta sauce: When you’re done cooking your homemade pasta sauce, use an immersion blender to achieve the desired consistency. You can also use a blender (let your sauce cool a bit first), but I find it easier to avoid over-mixing if I stick with an immersion blender. Personally, I like a chunkier sauce, but if we’re using it for pizza or as a dip, I like to chop it up a bit. It’s also great if you have a kid who can’t handle the chunks!

Store leftovers in the freezer. Even though this recipe is so easy – when I make a batch I like to double or triple it for future meals! Place the extra sauce in a ziplock bag and lay flat to freeze. It will be good for up to 6 months. Your sauce will stay fresh for up to 4 days in the fridge.

How can I serve homemade pasta sauce? Of course it tastes delicious with pasta, but that’s not all! This sauce is great as a dip for veggie twists, for homemade pizza, in our weeknight gnocchi, or to simplify dishes like this Baked Ziti.

What side dishes go with pasta? Some of our favorite pasta night sides include oven-roasted asparagus, simple homemade bread, a simple salad with citrus dressing, cheesy broccoli bites, or cauliflower breadsticks.

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