Red Wine Pasta Sauce

This red wine pasta sauce is a bold, flavorful twist on classic marinara. Simmered with garlic, herbs, and a splash of red wine, it’s the perfect way to elevate pasta night or add a homemade touch to your favorite Italian-inspired dishes. Save this recipe for an easy, freezer-friendly sauce you can use with pasta, casserole dishes, or as a dipping sauce. 

Here is Why This Red Wine Sauce Recipe Works

This sauce is really delicious. You can use it in all your favorite recipes that call for tomato sauce.  Try some on pizza, spaghetti and meatballs, our cottage cheese lasagna, or as a dipper for breadsticks. It’s even good on our sausage pizza or veggies.

The Ingredients

• Produce: Onions, garlic.
• Pantry: Olive oil, diced tomatoes, tomato paste
• Spices and Seasonings: Dried thyme, dried oregano, dried basil, bay leaf, sugar, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper.
• Other: red wine.

Pasta Sauce Variations 

Best Red Wine for Pasta Sauce

When it comes to choosing the best red wine for pasta sauce, the key is to pick something you enjoy drinking. A dry red wine with a good balance of acidity and flavor will complement the tomatoes and herbs. Here are some great options to consider:

• Cabernet Sauvignon: Bold and rich, this wine adds depth and pairs well with hearty sauces.
• Merlot: Smooth and slightly fruity.
• Chianti: Has a bright acidity and earthy notes.
• Pinot Noir: Pinot Noir works well if you prefer a more subtle wine flavor.

Tips for Success

• Cook the onions slowly over medium heat until they’re soft and translucent. This builds the base of your sauce.
  
• After cooking the garlic, stir in the wine and deglaze the bottom of the pan to incorporate all the flavorful bits.
  
• Don’t skip the bay leaf. It adds depth to the sauce, even though you’ll remove it before blending.
  
• If using a blender, let the sauce cool slightly, and don’t overfill the container to avoid splatters.
  
• Before serving, taste your sauce and adjust the seasoning as needed.

Storage

Spaghetti Sauce with Red Wine

This red wine pasta sauce is bold, versatile, and endlessly delicious. Perfect for pasta, pizza, or meal prep, it’s the kind of recipe you’ll make once and wonder how you ever lived without it.

Here are just a few ideas to use this sauce: smother it over grilled chicken, use it as a pizza topping, simmer meatballs in it, or stir it into risotto.

More Recipes to Try

• Sun Dried Tomato Bruschetta
• Lamb Sugo
• Panzanella

Red Wine Pasta Sauce

This red wine pasta sauce is fast and easy to make. If you have time, let it simmer for an hour to deepen the flavors. This recipe makes a large batch, so you can freeze some of it for a quick and easy meal later.

4.75 from 4 votes

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Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 40 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 cups

Calories: 59kcal

Author: Pat Nyswonger

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 medium onions finely chopped
• 8-10 garlic cloves minced
• 2 28-oz cans diced tomatoes, not drained
• 1 six-ounce can tomato paste
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoons dried oregano
• 1-½ tablespoons dried basil
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• ½ teaspoons sea salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

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Instructions

• In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and cook the onions over medium heat, stirring frequently, for 7-8 minutes. 
• When the onions are soft and transparent but not brown, add the garlic and cook for another 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly. 
• Stir in the diced tomatoes and their liquid, the tomato paste, the red wine, thyme, oregano, basil, bay leaf, sugar, salt and pepper. Bring the sauce to a boil, turn the heat to low and simmer for one hour.
• Transfer from the heat, remove and discard the bay leaf. 
• Use an immersion blender or kitchen blender and process until the sauce is smooth (if using a kitchen blender, do not fill the container more than 2/3 full and do not cover with the lid.

Notes

• This sauce can be stored in a covered container in the fridge for 5 to 10 days, or in the freezer for 3-months.
• This is a gluten-free tomato-garlic sauce
• Add additional garlic cloves for a more pronounced garlic flavor.
• If using a food blender, allow the sauce to cool before blending and do not overfill the container. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1/2 cup | Calories: 59kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Sodium: 101mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g

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