Sarra Ina Garten’s marinara sauce is a slow-simmered homemade pasta sauce made with fresh summer tomatoes, onion, celery, carrots, garlic, red wine, tomato paste, and fresh basil. It makes 2 quarts, serves 6, and simmers for about an hour.
Ina calls it her Farm Stand Pasta Sauce in Cooking for Jeffrey and says it’s “a really satisfying sauce to make when the summer tomatoes are ripe and plentiful.” She freezes it in quart containers and serves it all winter. When she doesn’t have time for homemade, she reaches for Rao’s, but this is the from-scratch version she makes when the tomatoes are worth it.
The tomatoes get blanched and peeled before they go in, not just chopped raw. This removes the tough skins that curl up into chewy bits in the finished sauce. Fresh summer tomatoes break down into a much sweeter, brighter sauce than canned, which is why Ina only makes this when local tomatoes are in season.
Ina Garten Marinara Sauce Recipe
Course: SaucesCuisine: Italian, AmericanDifficulty: Easy6
servings20
minutes1
hour280
kcalIna’s Farm Stand Pasta Sauce from Cooking for Jeffrey, made with ripe summer tomatoes, red wine, and fresh herbs. Freezes beautifully in quart batches so you have homemade sauce ready all winter long.
Ingredients
-
5 lbs (2.3 kg) good red summer tomatoes
-
Good olive oil
-
1 1/2 cups (225g) chopped red onion
-
1 1/2 cups (180g) medium-diced celery
-
1 1/2 cups (200g) scrubbed and medium-diced carrots (2 to 4 carrots)
-
2 tablespoons minced garlic (6 cloves)
-
1/2 cup (120ml) full-bodied red wine, such as Chianti or California Syrah
-
1/4 cup (65g) tomato paste
-
1/2 cup (20g) chopped fresh basil leaves, lightly packed
-
1/4 cup (10g) minced fresh parsley leaves
-
1 tablespoon sugar
-
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
-
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
-
1 lb (450g) orecchiette pasta, such as De Cecco
-
Freshly grated Italian Pecorino and/or Parmesan cheese
Directions
-
Blanch and peel the tomatoes: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Plunge the tomatoes in for 15 to 45 seconds depending on ripeness. Drain and transfer to a bowl of cold water. Core, peel with a paring knife, and cut into 1 1/2-inch dice. Set aside.
-
Cook the vegetables: Heat 1/3 cup olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add the celery and carrots and cook, stirring often, for 10 to 12 minutes until tender. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
-
Simmer the sauce: Add the tomatoes, wine, tomato paste, basil, parsley, sugar, red pepper flakes, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Bring to a simmer, lower the heat, and cook almost totally covered for 1 hour, stirring now and then.
-
Pulse to finish: In batches, pour the sauce into a food processor and pulse 2 to 3 times until roughly chopped. Don’t puree it smooth.
- Serve with pasta: Cook the orecchiette in boiling salted water per the package directions. Drain. Pour the sauce back into the pot, reheat, stir in the pasta and 1 tablespoon salt, and cook for 5 to 10 minutes until hot. Serve in shallow bowls with grated Pecorino or Parmesan.
FAQs
Why does Ina only make this with fresh summer tomatoes?
Fresh, ripe summer tomatoes have a sweetness and brightness that canned tomatoes can’t match. Ina designed this sauce specifically for peak tomato season when local farms have more than you can eat.
Out-of-season supermarket tomatoes are picked green and shipped long distances. They taste watery and bland, and no amount of simmering will fix that. If it’s not summer, Ina’s move is to skip homemade and use Rao’s instead.
What does Ina use when she doesn’t make her own sauce?
Rao’s marinara, every time. She uses it in her Spicy Turkey Meatballs, Eggplant Parmesan, and Roasted Vegetable Lasagna across multiple cookbooks.
Ina has never hidden the fact that store-bought is fine for marinara. This homemade version is the exception she makes when the tomatoes are worth the effort, not the everyday rule.
Why pulse the sauce instead of leaving it chunky?
Ina pulses 2 to 3 times in the food processor so the sauce is roughly chopped but not smooth. This gives you a thick, rustic texture that coats pasta without being watery.
Leaving it fully chunky means the vegetables stay in big pieces and the sauce separates on the plate. Pureeing it smooth turns it into something that tastes like jarred sauce. A few pulses is the sweet spot.
Can you freeze this marinara sauce?
Yes, and Ina specifically designed it for freezing. She says she “freezes it in quarts and serves it all winter.”
Let the sauce cool completely, pour into quart-sized freezer bags, push out the extra air, and lay them flat. Once frozen, stack them on top of each other. The sauce keeps for up to 3 months and thaws quickly in a pot of warm water.
What other pasta shapes work besides orecchiette?
Ina calls for orecchiette because the little cups catch the chunky sauce. Penne, rigatoni, and large shells all work the same way.
Avoid long, thin pastas like angel hair or spaghetti with this sauce. The vegetables and chunks of tomato need a shape with ridges or pockets to hold onto. The sauce slides right off smooth, skinny noodles.
