Easy Marinara Sauce

Hey there! I hope everyone’s having a good weekend. I’ve had a very busy couple of weeks, so I’m playing catch-up today. On Thursday night I made organic semolina pasta with a homemade marinara sauce and sautéed zucchini on the side. It came out really yummy and was super easy. I had lots of leftover sauce, so I’ve been eating it with everything over the past few days.

Here’s my marinara sauce recipe in case you’d like to try it. Many store-bought pasta sauces are filled with extra sugar and salt you don’t need. Plus, a bunch of them contain high fructose corn syrup, which you should avoid like the plague. It’s really easy and affordable to make your own marinara sauce.

Feel free to increase/decrease any of the portions to your liking. You really can’t mess this one up.

Laurel’s Easy Marinara Sauce

Ingredients:
2 cans organic tomato sauce (no added salt)
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
5 fresh basil leaves
3 sprigs fresh oregano
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. ground red pepper
salt & black pepper

Directions:
Pour the cans of tomato sauce into a medium sauce pan and heat on medium-low. Add the bay leaf to the sauce. Chop up garlic cloves and sauté for 1-2 minutes in a pan with the olive oil (don’t burn). Pour the sautéed garlic and olive oil into the tomato sauce and stir. Add red pepper and season with salt and black pepper to taste. Chop up the fresh basil and oregano leaves and stir them into the sauce. Turn the heat down to low, and let simmer until you’re finished cooking the rest of your meal.

Note 1: I like my sauce a little spicy, but you can leave out the red pepper if you like it more mild.

Note 2: For added flavor, add 1/4 cup onions to the garlic and olive oil sauté mixture.