Homemade Marinara - Freezer Friendly!

Homemade Marinara Sauce - from this awesome website

Two 28 oz cans, crushed tomatoes (I used whole, peeled tomatoes and mashed them with a fork myself for a chunkier marinara)

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 6 oz can tomato paste (I used about half to have a thinner sauce)

1 Tbsp dried basil (I omitted because I didn't have)

1/2 Tbsp dried oregano

2 medium bay leaves

1 Tbsp brown sugar (I omitted because I didn't want a sweet sauce)

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (I omitted because I just now saw that I needed to add it! Oops ;))

1) Gather ingredients.  Finely chop onion and garlic.

 2) In a large pot, put the olive oil and onions in.   Cook until the onions are soften and slightly brown over medium/ medium high heat.

 3) Add the tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients to the dish (you can choose to add in the basil, brown sugar, and vinegar at this time too).  I also actually just read from the original site that I should have added a teaspoon of brown sugar to balance the acidity of the tomatoes.  Oops #2. It was still good as is I thought!  Haha!

 4) At this point I used a fork to mash up the tomatoes a bit.  I think a potato masher is in my future.  I'm constantly wishing I had one.  Don't worry if you can't get all the tomatoes crushed up enough at this time because after they cook, you can break them down more.

 5)  Simmer over medium/low heat for an hour.  Leave a lid ajar to allow the steam to escape but to catch any bubbling bits of tomato.  I didn't have too much problem with this, but maybe it was because I started with whole tomatoes instead of crushed.

After an hour, this is the deliciousness you get.  And it makes your house smell SO good!  The best part is I used a ton for my Lasagna Roll Ups and still had two quart size gallon portions to freeze for later (once it was cooled).

I LOVE cooking once and having LOTS of leftovers!!  Totally worth the work.