Basic Tomato Sauce: the easy recipe for homemade tomato sauce

This Basic Tomato Sauce is a quick and easy Italian recipe. Use it as a base sauce for pizza, pasta, or any other sauces rich in tomato like a ragu. The flavor is rich in umami (thanks to all the tomatoes jam-packed into the pot) and the texture is silky.

To make it, you add all your ingredients to a pot, and then cook until the sauce thickens. This recipe is especially great if you have tomatoes in your garden, because tomato sauce is a wonderful way to use up an abundance of tomatoes, and you can do so much with tomato sauce!

Tips for making Basic Tomato Sauce

If you like your sauce chunky, then you can skip the strain step and leave the tomatoes with their skins on.

If you like, add parsley about 10 minutes from the end of cooking time (do this with the basil too). Adding the fresh herbs at the beginning will cause the flavors to cook away.

If your tomato sauce is not thickening enough, you can add a slurry. Simply dissolve 1 tablespoon corn starch in 2 tablespoons of the tomato sauce and stir into the pot or tomato sauce.

Make sure to pick ripe tomatoes for this recipe to get the best flavor. If the tomatoes aren’t ripe enough, the tomato flavor will be very bland.

The difference between tomato sauce and tomato puree is simply the consistency. Tomato puree is usually strained, is thicker, and is often more concentrated than tomato sauce. Whereas tomato sauce can be more liquid.

How to store Tomato Sauce

Store the tomato sauce in their glass jars in the fridge. You can also freeze it. Pour the tomato sauce in sealable Ziploc bags, and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. If you use sterilized glasses, your tomato sauce will last longer.

How to make Basic Tomato Sauce

Wash the tomatoes with water and baking soda.

Cut the tomatoes in half and place them in a pot.

Add the sliced onion, sugar, salt, basil and two cloves of garlic on a skewer.

Cover and cook for 40 minutes.

Remove the garlic and crush the tomatoes. Strain perfectly to remove all the tomato skins.

Pour the tomato sauce back into the pot.

Add salt and basil. Allow to boil and cool.

Let it cool. Pour the tomato sauce into 4 glass jars with a lid.

Close and place them in a pot. Place some kitchen cloths around the jars so that they don’t damage. Fill the pot with water, cover and boil for 40 mins. Then cool the jars and they will keep for up to 1 month.Keep for up to one month.

Notes

Use this Homemade Tomato Sauce as a marinara pizza base, in pasta, in ragu, barbecue sauce, curries, and even as a base for shakshuka!