Homemade Tomato Sauce, Simple and Quick
Homemade tomato sauce with passata, garlic, and basil: a simple, quick base for pasta, pizza, and countless Italian recipes.
Want a tomato sauce that’s simple but genuinely flavorful, the kind that forms the base of half of Italian cooking? Then this is the right recipe: a few ingredients, a few minutes, and a result that makes the difference.
Tomato sauce is the base preparation par excellence: it dresses pasta, forms the bed for pizza, binds parmigiana, and welcomes meatballs. Its strength is simplicity, but here too a few touches count.
It has at least three real advantages: it’s budget-friendly and vegan, it comes together in half an hour with pantry ingredients, and it keeps in the fridge or freezes, so you always have a batch ready.
The most important tip involves two details: don’t burn the garlic, which would make the whole sauce bitter, and add the basil only at the end of cooking, because prolonged heat disperses its aroma. If the passata is very acidic, a pinch of sugar rebalances it without making it sweet.
Once ready, this sauce becomes the starting point for many recipes: keep some in the freezer and you’ll have dinner sorted in minutes.
Ready? Let’s make tomato sauce.
To make this recipe
A small selection of handy tools to keep within reach. Some links may be affiliate links.
Large non-stick pan
Useful for cooking and sautéing ingredients evenly without overcrowding the surface.
Steps
- Warm the extra-virgin olive oil in a pan with the lightly crushed garlic clove and let it turn golden over low heat for 1 to 2 minutes, without burning it.
- Pour in the tomato passata, stir, and bring to a gentle simmer.
- Season with salt, add a few basil leaves and, if the passata is very acidic, a pinch of sugar. Lower the heat.
- Cook gently for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce thickens and the oil rises to the surface.
- Remove the garlic, add a final handful of fresh basil, and use the sauce right away or store it.
Helpful tips
A pinch of sugar corrects the acidity of the passata without making it sweet.
Add the basil at the end of cooking: prolonged heat disperses its aroma.
It's the base of countless recipes: pasta, pizza, parmigiana, meatballs in sauce. It keeps 3 to 4 days in the fridge and freezes well.
For a smoother sauce, blend the passata before cooking or use crushed whole peeled tomatoes.
Average nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 90 kcal
- Carbohydrates
- 9.0 g
- Sugars
- 7.0 g
- Protein
- 2.0 g
- Fat
- 6.0 g
- Saturated fat
- 1.0 g
- Fiber
- 2.0 g
- Sodium
- 320 mg
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