There is no need to cook a marinara sauce all day. You only need canned tomatoes, garlic, and spices to make Quick Zero Point Marinara in 20 minutes!
I know it can seem daunting to make your own sauce when you’ve had a long day. I used to always have a couple of jars of my favorite marinara from the grocery store on hand.
The only problem is that those bottled sauces are loaded with sugar, so they have needless points in them. I would much rather spend my points on extra cheese or pasta, especially now that I know how easy it is to make my own sauce!
If you have 30 minutes, you can make this sauce and let it simmer while you boil some pasta and brown some meat and/or veggies. You’l have a super easy pasta dinner done in under 30 minutes.
USe ingredients from your pantry
As long as you keep these spices and canned tomatoes on hand in your pantry, you’ll always be able to make this, even if you don’t have it on your meal plan.
Buy two 28-ounce cans of crushed plum tomatoes, and make sure your spice rack has onion powder, basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Other than that? Just some fresh garlic, kosher salt, and black pepper. That’s it!
How to make quick zero point marinara
Using a large saute pan or stock pot, saute your minced garlic. Add in your tomatoes, swish in a bit of water to your cans to get the rest of the tomatoes out and thin everything out, add spices, and simmer for 20 minutes. Done!
When you first start, the sauce might look a little too thin. Just wait for it to thicken as it simmers, and it will look more like this:
How to store the sauce
This definitely makes a lot of sauce, so you could cut the recipe in half if you want to use it for one pot of pasta. I like to make the full batch and store leftovers in the freezer. I can pull it out of the freezer for an even quicker dinner option.
It’s a great pizza sauce, too! I love my Pizza Sauce recipe, but this is just as a good and make a lot more.
I’d love to hear from you if you make this recipe! It makes my day when you share your pics on Instagram and tag me (@litecravings). Don’t forget to use #litecravingsrecipes to make sure I see it. If I don’t get a chance to scroll through my tags quickly enough, I won’t see your post. I always make a point to look through the hashtags, though, so I’ll see it there!
Quick Zero Point Marinara
Ingredients
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 28 ounce cans crushed plum tomatoes
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper
- 1 dried bay leaf
Instructions
- In a large skillet or stock pot, saute garlic in cooking spray until slightly brown, about 1 minute.
- Add in tomatoes. Add about 1 cup of water to one of the cans, sloshing around to get the remaining tomatoes out. Add the tomato water to the skillet or pot.
- Add all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove bay leaf and serve.
So easy, so delicious, makes enough to save for another recipe, too. I added ground turkey breast and it turned out perfect!!
Thanks for the review! Love the idea of making it into a meat sauce with turkey.
I’ve tried many different zero point marinara recipes only to be disappointed every time. Yours was so simple, I was sure I’d be disappointed again. This sauce was soooooo good! And super easy. I have a family of 7 and there is hardly any time EVER that everyone agrees on a meal that we all like. Really delicious.
This is the greatest compliment. Thank you! So happy your whole family loved it.
So sorry for the late reply. Thank you for the awesome review! I’m happy you love the recipe as much as I do!
Wonderful recipe!!! Can this be canned?
Great recipe! So much umami. I accidentally bought one can crushed tomatoes and one can petite diced tomatoes. I used the marinara as a pizza sauce and it was a bit chunkier than I would have preferred with the diced tomatoes, but will be perfect for lasagne or pasta. Thanks for sharing!
Glad you liked it and could find other ways to use it!