The Most Simple Homemade Pasta Sauce

You HAVE to try this easy, homemade pasta sauce! It is made with fresh garden tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Making pasta sauce from fresh tomatoes makes your sauce so much better!

The fall season is upon us and I have been enjoying going to our local you-pick farm and harvesting all of the produce that is ready to be gathered. The crisp mornings are so enjoyable for activities like this as the sun peaks up over the orchard covered hills.

So after buying a 10 pound box of farm fresh tomatoes, what else was I going to make besides some yummy pasta sauce?

I was inspired to make this sauce when I was having a craving for a really simple dish and I watched an Italian nona in her process of making her own sauce. I am not claiming that this is how Italian women make their traditional pasta, but I will claim that it tastes so fresh and it’s so good.

A Great Idea For So Many Tomatoes!

This is a great recipe to big batch when tomatoes are over flowing the garden and you need a recipe to preserve them. Since this recipe is made with a few simple ingredients it’s easy to fry everything up in a pan and put them into some warm jars for canning.

I have used this pasta sauce to make a couple of other dishes besides just paired with noodles. Depending on how much water you drain out of this sauce you can use it for super yummy pizza sauce. It makes a great margarita or just a normal pepperoni pizza with plenty of mozzarella. The other thing we use this sauce for is, hear me out, pizza sandwiches. You can spread some of this sauce on a couple pieces of bread and put any other toppings on the inside that you like and it is so delicious toasted in the oven!

What Is Traditional Pasta Sauce Made Of?

I love watching videos of Italian nonnas making traditional pasta sauce and the ingredients they all use are the same! Traditional pasta sauce is made with: tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Traditional pasta sauce (or most Italian dishes for that matter) include only the best and freshest ingredients. So when making this recipe try finding the most flavorful tomatoes and taking the time to crush up fresh garlic instead of using the jarred kind from the grocery store.

Tips For Making Homemade Pasta Sauce

• Mince the garlic before-hand and put it in the fridge so you’re ready as soon as the tomatoes are prepared.
• Use high quality olive oil and salt!
• You don’t have to, but double or triple this recipe for later, especially if you do any canning! If you’re going to go through the peeling and gutting process for the tomatoes you might as well make some for a rainy day.
• Homemade pasta sauce does not need tomato paste, however, if you prefer your red sauce to be a little thicker to resemble spaghettis or marinara sauce then you can add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste to this recipe or you can drain some of the water out with a mesh strainer.

How To Skin Tomatoes:

You need to get the skins off the tomatoes somehow. Now take it from me when I say it is far easier to do a broiling method instead of blanching the tomatoes. Of course you can blanch the tomatoes to get the skins off so, by all means, go ahead and do this if you’d like but some of them always end up over-boiled and the steam can heat up your home fairly quickly. Broiling is not nearly as messy and you don’t have to deal with heating a pot of water and plopping the tomatoes in splashing, boiling water. This is the best way, try the broiling method!

To do this you will half your tomatoes and put them face down on a parchment lined baking sheet. Then take them out of the oven after 10-12 minutes. When they are cool simply pinch the skin and peel them right off the tomatoes.

Ingredients You Will Need

• Tomatoes: Truthfully, many different tomatoes will work for this recipe. Try any kind you have on hand but if you are purchasing tomatoes go for Roma tomatoes or basic garden tomatoes.
• Garlic: A key ingredient for many pasta sauces.
• Olive Oil: Of course use extra virgin olive oil if possible. Extra virgin olive oil is less refined than normal olive oil which means it’s fat hasn’t been broken down. You will want the high quality fat and taste that extra virgin olive oils brings.
• Salt: Use Redmond Real Salt that is either ancient sea salt or kosher. Good quality salt will be a game changer for your cooking!
• Basil (optional): Some ingredients were just meant to be combined together. Tomatoes and basil are some of those ingredients. You will not ruin the dish without adding basil but some sliced basil always elevates this dish.

• Parmesan (optional): Again, parmesan is one of those ingredients that just goes so well with garlic, tomatoes, and basil. A great quality parmesan is the Parmigiano Reggiano from Costco. Freshly grated parmesan is such a treat with this homemade pasta sauce!

How To Make Homemade Pasta Sauce:

Get 2 lbs. of tomatoes.

Mince 4-5 cloves of garlic and set in the fridge for later.

Set your oven to broil on high while you half the tomatoes. Set the tomatoes face down on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Let the tomatoes broil in the oven for 12 minutes.

Take the tomatoes out of the oven and pull the skins off of the flesh.

Because tomatoes are so watery on the inside, after peeling the skins off you will need to gut the tomatoes. Get all of the water out of them before putting the flesh into a blender or food processor. Do this by getting a bowl and squishing the juice out of the pockets to separate the water from the tomato flesh.

Throw the flesh of your tomatoes into a blender or food processor and pulse until you like it’s texture.

Get the garlic out of the fridge and fry in a pan with 2 tbsp. of extra virgin olive oil until fragrant.

Once fragrant, add the blended tomatoes and stir together. Bring the sauce to a boil and reduce the sauce to simmer for 30 minutes.

Cut up some fresh basil and throw it into your sauce before serving with your choice of pasta and some parmesan cheese.

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If you love this recipe, I would love if you came back and gave it 5 stars!!!