This paleo, whole30 and keto marinara sauce is made in a jiffy for an incomparable result! 🍝
Paleo, Whole30 & Keto Marinara Sauce 🍅
The Traditional Italian Way 🇮🇹
This absolutely killer (and traditional!) Italian marinara sauce is naturally keto, paleo and whole30. i.e. you know it’ll be good! Plus, all you need are staple pantry items: good tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and some seasoning.
Oh, and 5 mins of your active time plus a 15 minute simmer. 💨
The Tomatoes 🍅
If you splurge on one thing for this marinara sauce, the tomatoes ought to be it. They’re the star of the sauce (duh!), so you do want to go all out here.
Think a can of good quality San Marzano-type tomatoes for the ultimate flavor oomph. But in the end, any type of whole peeled tomatoes will work. Though keep in mind that even if splurging on the tomatoes, making your own keto marinara sauce is much less expensive than the ‘approved’ store-bought versions. And way, waaaay better!
Oh, and fresh garlic is an absolute must here. No powder please!
So whether you use it up to elevate a simple bowl of zoodles, or give it a go in our (gluten free & keto!) deep-dish pizza, you’re in for a real Italian treat. 🍕
Paleo, Whole30 & Keto Marinara Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes San Marzano preferably
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 7 cloves garlic slivered crosswise
- 3/4-1 teaspoon kosher salt to taste
- pinch red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano more to taste
- 1 large basil spring or 1/2 teaspoon basil
Instructions
- Pour tomatoes out of the can and crush with your hands. Add water to the can, using it to get all the tomato goodness out of it. Set aside.
- Heat up olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Once hot add in garlic and cook for a minute or so, not allowing it to brown.
- Pour in crushed tomatoes and reserved water, along with salt, red pepper flakes and oregano. Place the basil spring whole in the center of the sauce, allowing it to submerge as it cooks. If no fresh basil is at hand, use dried.
- Turn the heat down to low and simmer for 15 minutes, or until thickened and the oil on the surface is a deep yellow color.
- Discard basil, mix thoroughly and use as needed.
Notes
Nutrition
This was a delicious marinara sauce. I used fresh peeled tomatoes, crushed the garlic with salt and added more oregano n chilli flakes and a tad bit of coconut sugar. Absolutely delicious, it will be my forever marinara sauce.
The fresh basil really added taste and aroma. Thank you so much then again all your recipes are great.
Look don’t bait us into reading the recipe by calling it ‘Keto’ asswipe. There’s nothing ‘Keto’ about this just your garden variety marinara recipe.
Lol I’m not sure what you expect me to do… traditional Italian marinara is naturally keto (as stated!). I’m simply giving you a terrific version of it 🙂
The reason this recipe isn’t keto is because you can’t eat any sugar (only “sugar alcohols”) on the keto diet. This recipe, as it shows in the Nutrition Facts, has 30g of sugar. That’s 30g more than you can eat on a keto diet. AT MOST, keto recipes might have between 1-3g sugar per serving. This recipe may as well be a recipe for a candy bar.
Mark… if you take the time to read, you will see that the nutrition facts are calculated for the *entire* batch (so it will be a couple grams of carbs a serving!) 😉
And the reason why there is sugar in the nutrition facts is because tomatoes are in fact a fruit and naturally have sugar. Any marinara sauce out there will have some carbs!
Keto means zero carbs. Tomatoes are ALL carbs. The closest you can come to keto on this type of thing is net-zero, which would mean adding fiber to balance the natural carbs in the tomatoes. This recipe could at least try to be net-zero and claim the title “keto” but without even trying to balance, the label is a farce.
The best way to be keto in this situation is to avoid tomato altogether and go with a cream-based pizza sauce instead.
I’m sorry, but keto doesn’t mean zero carbs. Keto is in fact short for ketosis, a metabolic state that arises from either limiting your carb intake or fasting. xo!
Hi there! I have so many tomatoes in my yard right now, I’m dying to make this. I’m a novice cook though and I’m wondering if I’m using fresh tomatoes about how many would I need? Thanks so much!
Truly a fantastic recipe find! I used canned crushed tomatoes and only half a cup of water and it was perfect! You’d never know it didn’t have real parmesan cheese! My husband even said it was “really good” three times during our meal! It’s a keeper! Thank you!
Thank you Paola. This recipe really made me feel like I’m a great cook haha. I had to simmer mine for way longer than 15 minutes but the outcome was delicious. Next time I think I’ll add less water.
Good base recipe. I might cut down on the oil and water by half each and maybe add a little more pepper flakes. I may also add some garden vegetables to make it a bit heartier. This is a great recipe and I look forward to making it again and again so I can perfect it to my personal taste. Thank you!
When making the deep dish pizza can and how can it be added. New to gluten free diet.
Thank you
Sorry how can yeast be added and when. How much water sugar yeast
I almost wish it said tomato chunks instead of whole tomatoes, because even when I tried to crush them with my hands, there were still some big pieces. Otherwise, great flavor to the sauce. And easy to make!!
In the nutrition facts it says there are 30 grams of sugar where is all that sugar coming from?
Tomatoes are a fruit and have sugar in them.
Excellent!
sprig
Hi recipe sounds easy and great, however have tried another which calls for onion and found it added a wonderful tang to the sauce, curious if it is OK paleo ingredient .
someone asked about freezing to keep i have froze my sauces but find it Ok if use in first couple weeks. find best to jar it in mason jars they say when jarred correctly can keep up to yr.
Hi Ralph! Onion is paleo… but Italians would roll in their graves to hear people are adding it to marinara 😜
My sauce sauce tastes great, but it never thickened…any thoughts on what I did wrong??
Hi Valerie! You likely just needed to cook for longer to reduce the water. Tomatoes can vary in water content etc, just just be sure to cook it until you get the consistency you want xo!
I’m feeling pasta for dinner, so I’ll have to try this recipe! Thanks for sharing.
I am usually not the biggest fan of red sauces (unless its on pizza)…this is the best sauce EVER. I can’t believe I ever bought store bought jar sauces ever before when this is so easy and tasty. One change I made was to use vegetable stock instead of water. Loved it.
I was skeptical about this because it seemed too easy but it is DELICIOUS and my super picky SO loved it too. Thank you for the recipe!
My pleasure Lori! Marinara IS easy, it’s all about the ingredients 😉
A serving size for me is half a cup. So this would have 7 servings. So to calculate nutritional values per serving you would divide Everything by seven. Amazing sauce by the way. Thank you!
This sauce is easy to make. I made this sauce to use on the pizza crust recipe. My grandsons are my guinea pigs. They are very picky. So, while having them taste my pizza, my 14 yr old grandson states, “this is the best marinara sauce he has ever eaten”, Lol, guess I need to work on my crust so more. The whole family loves it!!!!! Thanks.
Lol that’s awesome to hear! Thanks for sharing ketocoach 😉
Left comments on the wonderful pizza base so it’s only right to do the dame with the sauce. Firstly it tasted AMAZING!! For me next time, I’d leave the garlic cloves whole having crushed them and remove them when the sauce is ready as I’m not one for eating sliced garlic and prefer it for its flavour. For me, it was a little too watery but that wad perhaps the plum tomatoes I used so I’ll experiment more with or reduce it for longer but again, it was the bomb! Thanks Paolo xx
I’m seeing a lot of recipes using canned tomatoes and I am wondering if we can use fresh tomatoes instead? Is there an issue with using fresh? (This is my fave recipe I have come to stumble upon so far and I really want to make it!) Thanks 🙂
Hi Sulina! Canned tomatoes are simply the easiest way to have access to the best tomatoes (and they quick faster!). Having said that, definitely feel free to use fresh ones! xo!
How do you store this? Can it be frozen? If so for how long?
Hi Mandy! According to google you can freeze it for 4-6 months (I’m not an expert on freezing times lol!) xo!
Just a little question: how is this considered KETO, when it says 42gm of carbs per serving…….. was that a mistake
Hi Donna, as stated right before the nutrition label, those values are for the entire batch! Which is roughly 3-4 cups. And remember that tomato is a fruit, so it is higher in carbs than other veggies. xo
P,
I saw the comment about the nutritional information was for the whole recipe but there was no serving size or the number of servings per the whole recipe. Please advise. 😀
I just calculated it for the entire recipe so you guys can divide it between the number of servings to fit your macros (and dish!)
a can of diced tomatoes only has 5g of carbs so how could the recipe have 42g
Easily the best and easiest marinara sauce we’ve made! I was skeptical at the beginning because of the large amount of garlic and no onion… but it was delicious! Made it for your deep dish pizza and it was a huge hit with the family!