Homemade Red Pasta Sauce

Italian-American red pasta sauce that’s perfect for spaghetti, chicken parmesan, eggplant parmesan, and lasagna. Make this homemade sauce with canned or fresh tomatoes.

Related: See 24 must-try pasta recipes our family makes over and over again!

What’s the difference between marinara sauce and this pasta sauce?

Our family eats a lot of pasta. We love red sauce and especially love this homemade version. This homemade pasta sauce freezes exceptionally well and tastes just as good (if not better) than your favorite jarred spaghetti sauces.

We’ve shared our recipe for marinara sauce already and love it. It’s slightly lighter on the palate than this Italian-American-style sauce. Both are delicious, but we use the recipe that’s shared below when we are in the mood for a red sauce that’s more similar to jarred sauces. This sauce is richer and more complex than our marinara sauce.

What are the best tomatoes to use to make sauce?

First, you can make this pasta sauce with canned or fresh tomatoes. We typically use canned tomatoes, but I have included tips for fresh tomatoes below.

Best Canned Tomatoes to Use for This Sauce

When strolling down the grocery aisle, you have likely seen canned whole peeled tomatoes, canned diced tomatoes, canned crushed tomatoes, and cans of tomato puree or sauce cans.

We prefer to use whole peeled tomatoes when making tomato sauce. I find that diced tomatoes are too firm in this sauce since they do not cook down as well as the whole tomatoes. In addition, crushed tomatoes aren’t very consistent in flavor, and tomato sauce or puree doesn’t taste as fresh as the whole peeled tomatoes.

As the whole peeled tomatoes cook, they melt down into the sauce. Using a spoon, in the beginning, to break them up a bit helps speed this along.

San Marzano tomatoes are a popular choice for spaghetti sauces. They are an excellent option if you can find them since they are rich in flavor and are less acidic than other varieties. Otherwise, we find that most whole peeled tomatoes sold at stores work perfectly well in this recipe.

Using Fresh Tomatoes in This Sauce

When choosing fresh tomatoes for sauce, remember this. If the tomato already tastes good, it will make a lovely sauce. Sure, there are varieties of tomatoes explicitly grown for sauces, but you can still make tomato sauce even if you don’t have those.

You have the option to peel the tomatoes before making your sauce. Peeled fresh tomatoes will produce a better sauce since you won’t have any skins floating around. With that said, if you are short on time, you can leave the skins on. Yes, you will see bits of skins in your finished sauce, but it’s not too big of a deal. I’ve left the skins on my tomatoes plenty of times when making sauce and even tomato soup.

If you do wish to peel the tomatoes, here’s what to do:

1. Boil a large pot of water and prepare an ice bath (a large bowl with ice water).
2. Slice a shallow “X” on the bottom of each tomato.
3. Working in batches, drop the tomatoes into the boiling water, let them cook for 30 to 45 seconds, and then transfer them to the ice bath.
4. Use your hands or a pairing knife to peel the skins away from the tomatoes.

Making the sauce with fresh tomatoes: When adding skin-on tomatoes, cut each tomato into quarters before making the sauce. If you peel your tomatoes, you can add the tomatoes whole.

Ways to Use This Red Sauce

Anytime you would have reached for a jar of spaghetti sauce, you can use this simple tomato sauce.

To make a meat sauce, brown ground meat like beef or turkey in a skillet with some onions and garlic. Pour in the red sauce and simmer over low heat until the meat is fully cooked. This Spaghetti with Meat Sauce is helpful for reference.

To make a veggie sauce, sauté your favorite vegetables — I love onion, zucchini, and bell pepper. When the veggies are tender, stir in some pasta sauce and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes before serving over pasta. Here’s our Veggie Spaghetti for reference.

We also love using this sauce when making lasagna, here’s our easy lasagna recipe for you to look at.