How to Make the Perfect Marinara Sauce

I swear people forget to pay attention to what is said in these videos, but they don't forget to criticize when they weren't paying attention. This guy is absolutely correct about the tomatoes. If you use fresh tomatoes, they are probably local and maybe even from your own garden. They are likely to be more acidic so you'll have to add some sugar to your sauce to combat that acidity. And whether your fresh tomatoes are acidic or not, you still have to peel them, crush them, and remove the seeds. Why do all that work for little if any benefit when you can buy canned crushed tomatoes. They are picked , crushed, and canned at the peak of ripeness. All the work is done for you and there are plenty of varieties (San Marzano being one example) that are not acidic at all so no sugar is needed. Now on to the garlic. Another part where many of you didn't pay attention. He said he wanted to get a little color on the garlic, not burn it, and that's exactly what he did. Browning the garlic a bit obviously adds a flavor dimension. Then he turned down the heat and added the onions to sweat them. The onions cannot be added first, or both at the same time (how I do it) if you want a little color on the garlic. There are many different ways to cook. When you encounter a method, cooking style, or a step that you don't personally do that doesn't mean it's wrong. It's just different. So why criticize?

Since the garlic is chopped into smaller pieces it does brown quicker, but if you add the onions as soon as  the garlic begins to brown it will not get burned.

I wish they would show the pot more instead of the chef.

I wish YouTube had a scratch and sniff button.... so we all can smell the nice Aromatics coming from your kitchen 😊 thanks for sharing ✨

This cook is just a normal guy. It's great. He did a great job, not trying to be all cool or make it about himself. I love it

I've been trying to perfect a "gravy" or marinara sauce for over 10 years. The single most effective thing I've learned is this: Make it the day before, let it sit in the fridge overnight and then reheat it when needed. (not in a reactive pan/pot, transfer it to something ceramic or glass) The flavors develop, the harshness of the acidity mellows out, it get's a little sweeter (with no sugar added), and overall just gets a nice rounder flavor profile. I've tried so many different ways of trying to get the same results on the same day, even slow cooking a sauce for 3-4 hours, etc. Nothing works like letting it sit in in the fridge overnight. (BTW, same goes for stews)

Wow the negativity is always sky high on social media. Anyways. Thank you chef for showing the easy recipie. I always thought marinara sauce is a big deal to make so this one gives me some confidence in making it. Keep teaching :).

I'm a retired chef who worked primarily in French kitchens but enjoy cooking Italian cuisine at home. In my elusive search for the perfect marinara sauce I've read 1000's of recipes.This one is pretty much exactly how I would write a marinara recipe but I can tell you with confidence that the quality of the finished product is 95+ percent related to the quality of the canned tomatoes used. This chef is using 6 in l Ground Tomatoes from Escalon. This is a California tomato product that is sold almost exclusively to the foodservice industry. This company, along with their competitor, Stanislaus Food Products, packs, in my opinion, the best canned or aseptic packed (like Pomi) tomato products available in the US. That includes D.O.P. certified San Marzano whole plum tomatoes.Sadly, they are hard to find in retail stores although Restaurant Depot & Amazon sells them. But in my local RD only in the large #10 can.

I appreciate when a chef utilizes a canned product for a recipe like this. I tried it your way and I tried it all from scratch. Barley any difference and this way was so much faster.

Short, sweet, and simple. Thanks for the ideas.

Made this sauce for girlfriend and she really liked it. Now she's pregnant.

This was kind of how I was going to make my sauce tonight but thanks for the extra tips & instructions. Can't wait to try it out!

I add onion before garlic . Garlic cooks quicker & burns more easily.

I just got doing everything you had done and came outside to check on the computer. Now I have confidence also! Thank you Sir. You are not annoying, nor did you try to reinvent the wheel.

This recipe was so delicious! Totally worth making it at home rather than buying store bought marinara sauce. I highly recommend this recipe.

This is perfect to go with my garlic knots that I'm making, thank you.

Just made this sauce. Its pure gold. Worldclass.

Very simple to make Best I've seen so far

Thank you so much for this helpful video!

Just what I needed! Thanks chef!