The Best Tomato Sauce

Name: The Best Tomato Sauce in the World!
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 55 min
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped, or one 28 ounce can imported Italian tomatoes, cut up, with their juice; 5 tablespoons butter; 1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half; 1/2 teaspoon salt

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It’s hard to believe that the recipe for the best tomato sauce in the world has only three ingredients, but it’s true! Make it today and rock your world…tomato sauce-wise.

Best tomato sauce in a jar with a wooden spoon.

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Why you will love this recipe
Ingredients you need
Ingredient notes and substitutions
How to make this recipe
Recipe FAQ
Want to round out your meal?
Other pasta sauce recipes we love!
Could you leave us some stars?
The Best Tomato Sauce in the World!

Why you will love this recipe

In a nutshell, this easy homemade tomato sauce recipe is going to ROCK YOUR WORLD. It’s that easy, and that good.

And to immediately give credit where credit is due, as much as I wish I had come up with this recipe, it was written by the brilliant Marcella Hazan, and is probably her most famous (and easiest) recipe ever. Here’s why I had to share!

First, it tastes AMAZING. I might have mentioned that.

Second, it only involves three ingredients.

Third, it takes less than an hour of cooking, and most of that time it is just doing its own thing simmering away on the stove, turning into homemade tomato sauce gloriousness.

Ingredients you need

Ingredient notes and substitutions

Salt: Ok, that’s ingredient number 4, but it is totally optional, depending on how sweet you like your tomato sauce.

Tomatoes: I use canned tomatoes, but during fresh tomato season you can use fresh chopped tomatoes as well.

Onion: You want a nice big sweet onion for this sauce…they are sometimes called Vidalia or Walla Walla onions.

How to make this recipe

STEP 1: Put your tomatoes, butter and a peeled halved sweet onion in a saucepan and bring it to a simmer.

STEP 2: Let it simmer for 45 minutes, then take the onion out and toss it (or better still, save it to add to a soup or a stew).

If you like your sauce chunky you are ready to roll. If you like your sauce smooth, you can give it a whirl with the immersion blender, or puree it in your regular blender.

And…you’re done!

Recipe FAQ

If I am using fresh tomatoes, what’s the best way to peel them?

You can peel fresh tomatoes by cutting a shallow X in the bottom of each tomato, plunging them into boiling water for one minute, scooping them out with a slotted spoon and then peeling with a paring knife when cool enough to handle.

Can I use already diced canned tomatoes for this recipe?

You can, but I think the whole canned tomatoes have a richer flavor. I “chop” them by putting them into the pot and snipping them into pieces with a kitchen scissors.

What’s the onion for if it’s not going with the sauce at the end of the recipe?

The onion cooks with the tomatoes and butter and releases just enough onion flavor during the cooking process. If you leave it in (which you can do – you be you!) your sauce will naturally have a little more onion flavor to it.

Have a question that I didn’t cover?

Pop your question in the comments section below and I will answer pronto!

Want to round out your meal?

This tomato sauce recipe is of course just plain perfect ladled over a bowl of pasta. But if you want to use it in other ways, we love to use it in this recipe for one pot spaghetti and meatballs.

It’s also perfect with mashed potato gnocchi, and ricotta dumplings!

Other pasta sauce recipes we love!

Could you leave us some stars?

If you try this recipe, we would love to hear how it came out for you! I’d be super grateful if you could leave a star rating (you pick how many stars! 🌟 ) and your thoughts in the Comments section.