Homemade Tomato Pasta Sauce Recipe

Only 15 minutes and a handful of ingredients are needed to make this easy tomato pasta sauce recipe. Serve with your choice of pasta and enjoy!

Since Alex and I love to cook Mediterranean, we are looking for the perfect recipe for homemade tomato sauce for pasta. I was absolutely willing to make sacrifices for this business – like struggling in the kitchen to achieve the perfect taste. Since many pasta sauce recipes call for chopping and sautéing onions, carrots, and celery, and then simmering the sauce for an hour or more, I was willing to put in the time. However, after careful investigation, I’m happy to report that it takes 15 minutes or less and a handful of ingredients to achieve the flavor I was looking for. Enter: this homemade tomato pasta sauce recipe.

Also try: Homemade Spaghetti Sauce with Meat or Vegetable Streusel!

Make this Tomato Pasta Sauce recipe

The prep for this easy tomato pasta sauce recipe is minimal. Chop up some garlic (the toughest!) and lightly sauté it in olive oil with some red pepper flakes. Then simmer with the canned tomatoes for 5-10 minutes until you get the consistency and flavor you want.

You can also add fresh or dried herbs like basil, oregano, or parsley, but only if you feel like it. If you add dried herbs, you may want to let this tomato and pasta sauce recipe simmer a little longer to allow the herbs to add as much flavor as possible to the dish. Whether you add extra herbs or not, the result is a delicious, easy pasta sauce that you can serve with a variety of dishes. And you’ll discover that store-bought pot sauces could be a thing of the past… it’s that easy to become an Italian grandma!

Tips for making the best tomato sauce

Since this tomato pasta sauce recipe is so easy, it’s really important that you use the best ingredients possible. For mashed tomatoes, we love Muir Glen and San Marzano tomatoes. Both brands have incredibly fresh-tasting canned tomatoes that aren’t too sour or bitter straight out of the can. We also recommend using freshly squeezed lemon juice for the best flavor. And if you like your homemade tomato and pasta sauce with a little spiciness, feel free to add more red pepper flakes!

How to Freeze Tomato Sauce

This pasta sauce recipe is easy to freeze and enjoy later. The most important thing is to let this sauce cool completely on your counter before transferring to freezer-safe containers (glass mason jars work well). You can also put the sauce in freezer bags; If you go this route, I recommend freezing the bags first on a baking sheet so they lay flat in the freezer. Once the packets of sauce have frozen flat, remove them from the baking sheet and stack them in the freezer.

Regardless of how you choose to freeze this pasta sauce recipe, be sure to label the container you use with the recipe name and date. It’s useful for knowing when you’ve made it (if you’re like us and can’t remember where the items in our freezer came from)!

Looking for uses for pasta sauce?

Looking for easier Italian recipes?

Aside from this pasta sauce recipe, here are a few of our favorite easy Italian recipes:

This pasta sauce recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, dairy free, plant based and gluten free.