Whole Grain Penne Pasta with Homemade Marinara Sauce

My kids love any sort of pasta with marinara sauce. And till yesterday I’d buy my marinara sauce in ready-to-go bottles from the store. But not any more.

I finally found a marinara recipe that I tweaked to marry together my family’s taste preferences in one sauce!

Here’s hoping your family gives this one their unanimous seal of approval!

5.0 from 2 reviews

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 6

You can even throw in veggies (carrots,spinach) if you’d like your kids to have all their “must-eats” on one bowl. They won’t know the veggies are in there because they all get thrown into the blender once done!

Ingredients

1 can (28 oz) chopped tomatoes
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
½-3/4 cup chopped onions
4 cloves of garlic chopped
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt
1½ tsp dried basil leaves
½ tsp dried oregano leaves
1 tsp dried Italian herbs
1½ tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp Olive Oil
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1-1½ lbs ground beef//turkey/lamb/chicken washed (I always wash my meat/poultry, even if its ground, before cooking the same)
1 box (13.25 oz) Multi-grain penne pasta

Instructions

Cook the penne pasta as per the directions on the box (or the way you generally cook your pasta!) and set it aside
In a large saucepan, mix in all the remaining ingredients (including the meat/poultry) and cook on a low flame for about 20 minutes.
Now add the shredded cheese and continue to cook for an additional 10 minutes.
Set aside to cool.
When cool, blend the sauce to really get all the ingredients infused into the other.
Warm the sauce and pasta and serve with generous sprinkles of parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!