My first apartment after college had exactly three pieces of cookware: a pot, a pan, and a hand-me-down blender. Even with such limited resources, I was determined to stop surviving on ramen and learn to cook. The turning point came after a dinner at Olive Garden, where I loved their simple marinara sauce. “If they can make something this good with just tomatoes and herbs,” I thought, “maybe I can too.” That weekend, I attempted my first homemade marinara, and despite some rookie mistakes, I was hooked. The best Italian cooking is simple yet delicious, and that perfectly describes this marinara sauce. Nothing is complicated about it, but the authentic flavors will impress you and your guests in just 35 minutes, with only 5 minutes of prep work.
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Table of Contents
Why Is The Olive Garden Marinara Sauce So Good?
The best Italian cooking is simple yet delicious. That is a great way to describe this recipe for traditional Olive Garden Marinara Sauce. It is not complicated, but the authentic flavors will impress you and your guests.
Stop wasting money on jarred pasta sauce when you can make your own that tastes much better for much less money.Â
What Makes This Copycat Version of Marinara Sauce Perfect for So Many Different Recipes?
A great thing about this marinara sauce is that it is so basic. It does not contain onions, celery, or other vegetables that can appear in some marinara recipes.
That means this tomato sauce is perfect for serving with pasta and can also be used in many other recipes. See below for a few ideas.Â
Ingredients For Copycat Olive Garden Marinara Sauce
To make this tomato sauce, you’ll need:
- Extra virgin olive oil – Creates the rich base that carries all other flavors
- Garlic – Infuses the oil with aromatic compounds for depth without overpowering
- Tomato puree – Provides smooth body and concentrated tomato flavor
- Diced tomatoes – Adds texture and fresh tomato chunks to the sauce
- Italian seasoning blend – Delivers classic herb flavors in perfect proportion
- Dried basil – Enhances the sauce with its distinctive sweet, peppery notes
- Red pepper chili flakes – Adds subtle warmth without making the sauce spicy
- Salt – Enhances all the flavors and balances sweetness
- Ground black pepper – Provides mild heat and complexity
- Sugar – Balances the natural acidity of tomatoes
How To Cook Copycat Olive Garden Marinara Sauce
To make this copycat Olive Garden marinara sauce recipe:
- Place a large sauce pot over medium heat and allow it to warm.
- Pour in the extra virgin olive oil, and when hot, add the sliced garlic.Â
- Reduce the heat to medium-low, allowing the garlic to color slightly and become fragrant. Adjust the heat and occasionally stir the garlic to prevent it from burning.
- Remove the sliced garlic with a slotted spoon and discard.
- Add the diced tomatoes and tomato puree to the sauce pot. Be careful, as the pot can splatter if it is too hot.
- Sprinkle in the dried basil, Italian seasoning blend, red pepper chili flakes, salt, and black pepper.
- Stir the sauce to combine.
- Bring the sauce to a slow simmer. Cover and cook for 25 to 30 minutes. Adjust the heat if necessary to maintain a slow simmer.
- Taste the sauce, adjust the seasonings, and add some or all of the sugar if you think it tastes too acidic.Â
What To Serve It With
Due to spaghetti’s size and shape, it is a perfect pasta to pair with marinara sauce. However, angel hair, spaghettini, cheese ravioli, tortellini, and ziti are also fine choices.
Other Ways To Use This Sauce
Besides serving pasta, there are dozens of ways to use marinara sauce, either on its own or as part of another recipe. Here are some suggestions to consider:
- A dipping sauce for fried mozzarella sticks, deep-fried mushrooms, or breadsticks.
- Use in a chicken parmesan or eggplant parmesan recipe.
- The sauce is an excellent base for tomato-based dishes like shakshuka or chili.
- Add browned ground beef to make a meat sauce.
How To Store Leftovers
Any extra marinara sauce can be kept in the fridge or the freezer, but the key is to store it properly.Â
- Bring the sauce’s temperature down as quickly as possible. One of the best ways to do that is using an ice bath. Fill a large bowl halfway with ice and water. Set a smaller bowl in the ice water, and pour the sauce into the smaller bowl. Stir until cold.Â
- Transfer the sauce to an airtight container and place it in the fridge or freezer. If you are freezing a big batch, use single portion-sized containers. That way, you won’t have to defrost all your sauce at once.Â
How Long Does Marinara Sauce Last in the Fridge and Freezer?
The sauce can last three days in the fridge and up to three months in the freezer. Thaw the sauce in the refrigerator before using it.
Authentic Olive Garden Marinara Sauce | Versatile Tomato Base
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic sliced into large slices
- 28 ounces canned tomato puree
- 28 ounces canned diced tomatoes
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning blend
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large stainless-steel pot or Dutch oven (do not use cast iron, as the acidity of the tomatoes may make the sauce taste metallic) over medium heat.
- When the oil is hot, add the sliced garlic. Cook until the garlic becomes translucent and very fragrant. Remove the garlic from the pot.
- Add the tomato puree, diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, dried basil, chili pepper flakes, salt, and ground black pepper to the pot and stir to combine. Lower the heat to a simmer and place a lid on the pot. Simmer for 25 to 30 minutes.
- Taste the sauce. If it’s too acidic, add 1/2 tablespoon of sugar, taste it, and see if you need to add the remaining sugar.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
More Olive Garden Copycat Recipes
- Cheese Stuffed Shells
- Chicken and Shrimp Carbonara
- Chicken Scampi
- Chicken Tortellini Alfredo
- Fried Mozzarella
- Grilled Chicken Margherita
- Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce Recipe
- Olive Garden Salad Dressing Recipe
- Olive Garden Drinks
- Olive Garden Soups
Favorite Italian Sauce Recipes
Check out my delicious Italian recipes and the best copycat Olive Garden recipes on CopyKat!
I really like this sauce and it’s my go-to for a marinara. It is especially good with the copy cat Olive Garden meatballs. People need to remember to adjust recipes to their personal tastes before giving a bad rating and trashing the recipe. For instance I don’t like my food super spicy so I tend to reduce (or eliminate, depending on the dish) the amount of red pepper flakes or other spicy ingredients that are called for. In this recipe I add a scant 1/4 tsp of the red pepper flakes and in the meatball recipe I cut the amount in half. That is just enough spicy for me. Thank you for the recipe. They are both keepers in my book.
This is a keeper for me – ended up subbing the dried basil for 1/2 cup of fresh basil and it was super tasty with rich flavor, very close to Olive Garden. Thanks for the recipe!
My husband and I both thought this was too spicy hot! I ended up discarding it-what a waste of ingredients. It didn’t taste anything like Olive Garden marinara!
I am very sorry to hear this. The recipe only contained 1/4 of a teaspoon of red pepper flakes to give the sauce spice.
Not sure why this turned out so bad. The suggestion to add up to a Tablespoon of sugar to counter the acidity did nothing to diminish the strongly sour taste. I ended up adding heavy cream and parmesan, but they only slightly modified the bitter taste. The Olive Garden meatballs, however, were terrific.
You could add a pinch of baking soda to help raise the pH to make it less acidic. Each can of tomatoes can be a bit different. I am sorry this recipe did not work for you.