July 29, 2026

Marinara Sauce

Tomatoes are coming into peak season around here, so I went out and bought 20 fresh romas to try out some Tomato Sauce from scratch.

I started by splitting and seeding them all, then putting them in some glass baking pans. After that I drizzled them all with some olive oil (I didn’t bother measuring), then added the chopped garlic and then the onion, salt, and pepper. I was using dried herbs so I decided to save them for later – the thought being that dried herbs would just burn with 2.5hr in the oven.

Before I did this recipe I read through the comments on the Food Network site. This one is odd: there are plenty of 5 star ratings and plenty of one star ratings. The one star ratings almost all say that everything came out of the oven burned to a crisp. So, following some of the five star comments I cooked them at 300 degrees for the first hour, 325 for the next half hour, and then I did the last half hour at 400 like the recipe says.

I think I got it just right – cooked perfectly with just the right amount of caramelization. Though, the bottom of the pans was caked, which took a lot of elbow grease to clean. One commenter said he used parchment paper on the bottoms of the pans, so were I to do this again I’d try that. After the tomatoes were done it was time for the food mill.

This was the first time I used a food mill, so it was a bit of a learning experience. I think I did it right, and after 10 minutes or so of cranking I had a mill full of skins and about a cup and a quarter worth of sauce.

Lots of the comments pointed this out – for all the tomatoes and all the work put into the recipe, you really don’t end up with a lot of sauce. I just don’t know how in the world the recipe gets to the 4 cups as listed on the site.

Regardless, I put that resulting sauce in a pan and added some wine. The recipe says to add a full cup of wine, but I figured since I only got a little more than a cup that I’d only add a quarter cup of wine. Also, I added the herbs at this point, too. I let the sauce come to a boil and then simmered it for a while before I tasted it. On the first taste, it was really bitter. I had read in the comments that this could happen and the solution was to add sugar. I added a little bit at a time, and after about a teaspoon worth, it started tasting pretty good. I heated up some left over pasta and topped it with the sauce.

The sauce definitely has the consistency of a marinara – the kind of sauce you’d get with some mozzarella sticks from the local pizza house. I am not sure I’d really do this one again based on the amount of work you need to put in for the result, but my family really liked it, so it was all worth it.

Tomato Sauce

• Crowd: 4/5
• Ease: 2/5
• Cooked for 1.5hr at 300, then 30m at 325, then 30m at 400
• Only made about a cup and a quarter of sauce
• Added the herbs while cooking with the wine
• Added only 1/4 cup of wine
• Added a teaspoon of sugar to combat bitterness