Step-by-Step Easy Homemade Spaghetti Sauce With Fresh Tomatoes

Step-by-Step Homemade Spaghetti Sauce With Fresh Tomatoes

What’s better than a quick spaghetti sauce from fresh tomatoes? We have a recipe for you that’s ready in minutes. It’s tangy, sweet, and packed with flavor. Serve it as it is, or add your favorite cheese or a few basil leaves. And just like that, a quick lunch or dinner is ready.
So, how do you make spaghetti sauce with fresh tomatoes?
Prep the ingredients and start cooking your pasta first. While it cooks, fry the onion, garlic, and spices. Add the tomatoes and let them simmer. Then blend everything until you get a smooth sauce. Combine the sauce with the pasta and enjoy.
That’s your spaghetti sauce recipe with fresh tomatoes in a nutshell. Now let’s go over it step by step with photos and all the details so you can cook along.

Start with the quick prep.

This sauce cooks fast, so it’s best to prepare everything beforehand. Grab oregano, ground coriander, white pepper, salt, and sugar. Mix them in a bowl so they are ready.

Next, chop a small onion and mince a clove of garlic. Then tackle the tomatoes. Go for ripe ones with thin skin. We like to use cherry tomatoes in the winter. But in the summer, it’s all about those juicy seasonal ones. Cut the tomatoes into nice chunky pieces.

Cook pasta and sauce at the same time.

Now onto the pasta. Heat a pan of water and bring it to a boil. Add salt to the boiling water. Add the pasta. Cook it until it’s al dente. If you like pasta that’s more firm to the bite, undercook it by 1 minute. You’ll finish cooking it in the sauce.

While that bubbles away, let’s make the spaghetti sauce with fresh tomatoes. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. If your stove has numbers, go for about 6 out of 9. Add the chopped onion and let it sizzle until it turns transparent. Then add the garlic and give it a good mix. It takes about a minute for everything to turn fragrant.

It’s time to add flavor. Save some pasta water while the pasta cooks. Sprinkle the spices into the pan and give everything a quick stir. Can you smell that? Once it’s aromatic and lovely, you don’t need to cook it any longer. Add a splash of pasta water or regular water to the pan so the spices don’t burn.

Now add the chopped tomatoes. Stir them in, cover the pan with a lid, and let them simmer for about 8 to 10 minutes. Stir now and then.

Make a smooth sauce.

Once the tomatoes are soft, grab your food processor. Blend them until the sauce looks smooth. You can strain it through a sieve if you want it extra silky, but you don’t have to. We like tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes with skin, so we skip the straining. A little texture tastes great.

If you end up with a thick sauce, don’t worry. Add a splash of pasta water until it feels right to you.

Combine the sauce and pasta.

Now your pasta sauce from fresh tomatoes goes back into the pan for a short simmer. Let it bubble for a few minutes. Taste it and add salt if you need it.
It’s time to bring everything together. Take the sauce off the heat. Don’t just reduce heat. Lift the pan off the stove completely. Add your cooked pasta to the sauce and give it a good mix. That’s why you want the pasta slightly undercooked or al dente. It finishes cooking as you mixe it with the hot sauce.
That’s it. Your homemade pasta sauce with fresh tomatoes is ready. Combine it with pasta that’s firm and warm, and it tastes so delicious.

Dish it up and enjoy every bite. Add a basil sprig or a few extra spoons of sauce on top.

So now you know that canned spaghetti sauce is not worth buying. And making tomato sauce from scratch is so easy and quick. With this simple recipe, everything is ready in just 15 minutes.

Ingredients and Tips

Now let’s talk about the ingredients in detail. You’ll love how easy this sauce is to put together with just a few basic ingredients. We’ve made this tomato sauce recipe many times and have a few important tips for you. Don’t miss them down below.

Ingredients

For exact measurements, check the recipe card.

Tomatoes

We need fresh tomatoes for this tomato pasta sauce. Go for ripe tomatoes with thin skin. The best ones are seasonal tomatoes or fresh garden tomatoes. But if you don’t have seasonal tomatoes, you can use plum tomatoes or cherry tomatoes. They work well too. These are easy store-bought options you can find year-round. If you want more details on which tomatoes to choose for this recipe, check here.

Love cooking with cherry tomatoes? Try our pasta with cherry tomatoes and feta cheese. This recipe takes a bit longer, but that’s only because of the baking time. It’s very quick to prep and you don’t need to cut anything. Just throw everything on a sheet pan, bake it, and combine it with cooked pasta.

Onions and garlic

Chop the onion and mince the garlic. Use whole garlic cloves, not garlic powder. Fresh garlic gives the sauce so much more flavor.

Vegetable oil

We prefer vegetable oil, like sunflower oil. You can use olive oil too. If you do, go for extra virgin olive oil because it adds a lot of flavor to the sauce.

Pasta

We chose spaghetti, but you can go for your favorite pasta shape. You can also use gluten-free pasta. Just check the cooking time and don’t overcook it.

Spices for the sauce

Oregano, ground coriander, white pepper, salt, and sugar. That’s it. These are simple spices you probably already have at home. That’s all you need. You can use white or brown sugar. You can also add basil, oregano, rosemary, or thyme. These herbs work best with tomato. Sprinkle a bit on top if you love one of those flavors.

That’s it. A few basic ingredients you most likely already have at home. This is basically a simple marinara sauce with fresh tomatoes, so everything comes straight from pantry staples.

Easy Tips to Help You Nail This Recipe

• Ready to make the best homemade spaghetti sauce with fresh tomatoes? Then don’t miss these tips. We’ve made this recipe many times and want to share the most important ones so you get the most delicious pasta.
• The most important part is the tomatoes. They have to be ripe and taste good on their own. If your tomatoes don’t taste good fresh, they won’t taste good in the sauce.
• Undercook your pasta. One minute less is perfect. We combine pasta and sauce, and while you mix them, the pasta softens a bit more.
• Save pasta water. Add it after the spices, and use it any time your sauce feels too thick. It gives the sauce the perfect consistency. With pasta water, the sauce can stick better to the pasta.
• Don’t add salt or pasta to cold water. Your water should be boiling.
• Don’t rinse your pasta. There is starch on it, and the sauce sticks much better.
• If you want fresh tomato sauce ready in advance, freeze it in portions and defrost when you need it. You can read more about that here.

How to Choose the Best Tomatoes for Pasta Sauce?

To make the most delicious homemade pasta sauce with fresh tomatoes, you need ripe, flavorful tomatoes. They make the sauce sweet, rich, and tangy. With the simple spices we use, the flavor gets even better.
So, what kind of tomatoes are best for fresh tomato pasta sauce?

• Use red ripe tomatoes. Green or brown tomatoes won’t work.
• Choose tomatoes with thin skin. Then you don’t need to strain the sauce through a sieve.
• In winter, go for cherry tomatoes. They have thin skin and a deep red color.
• In summer or spring, choose seasonal tomatoes. They taste the best.

Cut off the stem and slice the tomatoes into chunky pieces. Add simple spices. We love coriander, oregano, and pepper. To balance the flavors, add salt and a teaspoon of sugar. Then simmer, blend in a blender, and serve with your favorite pasta.

Storage + How to Adjust

Curious how to store this pasta dish? Or want to make spaghetti sauce in advance? You can definitely make it and freeze it for longer. Check how down below.
Let’s start with how to store tomato sauce, with pasta or without, and how to reheat it.

How to Store and Reheat

You can store this tomato sauce pasta in the fridge for up to 4–5 days. The best way is to mix only the amount of sauce with pasta that you want to eat. And then store the rest of the sauce in the fridge. Store it in an airtight container or a mason jar. When you’re ready to eat, cook fresh pasta, combine, and enjoy.

How to reheat

If you want to reheat the pasta with tomato sauce, put it in a pan. Add one or two tablespoons of water or pasta water and cook it on low heat. Heat it, stirring occasionally.

How to freeze

You can make several batches of homemade tomato sauce with fresh tomatoes and freeze them. The sauce stores well in the freezer for several weeks. Check out our step-by-step method for freezing tomato sauce in freezer bags. Why freezer bags? They’re perfect for portioning the sauce into single servings or bigger portions. And they take up very little space in the freezer. When you need it, just defrost as many servings as you want, even if you only need a quick dinner for yourself.
You only have to cook the pasta when you prepare your meal, because the sauce is already ready. So you don’t need homemade canned spaghetti. You can always grab a serving or two of your pasta sauce with fresh tomatoes from the freezer. And it’s as quick—or even quicker—than making sauce with crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, or San Marzano tomatoes.

How to Adjust

Missing a special kick? You can easily adjust this tomato pasta sauce recipe to your taste. Here are a few simple ideas.

Spicy
Sprinkle hot sauce or red pepper flakes on top.

Herby
Fresh basil leaves, rosemary, or thyme taste perfect with tomato.

Gluten-free
Swap in your favorite gluten-free pasta, because all the other ingredients in this recipe are naturally gluten-free.

Cheesy
Sprinkle Parmesan or mozzarella on top if you want your pasta more creamy.

More vegetables
You can add sautéed vegetables like beans, broccoli, or zucchini. You can also add chopped mushrooms or a bit of cheese you love.

This sauce recipe with fresh tomatoes works not only for pasta. It also tastes amazing with beans, pizza, ratatouille—you name it.