Can You Freeze Marinara Sauce?

Marinara sauce and pasta go hand in hand. Whether you’re rustling up a quick and easy pasta dish after work or treating the family to an indulgent pasta bake at the weekend, marinara sauce is likely to be a key ingredient! But what’s the best way to store Marinara Sauce after you’ve opened the jar (or made a batch yourself)?

How to Freeze Marinara Sauce

Freezing marinara sauce is incredibly straightforward. The most important thing to remember is that you need to allow it sufficient time to cool before adding it to the freezer.

Otherwise, there’s not a lot that can go wrong, as we explain below: 

1. Cool
   Once you have heated your marinara sauce, remove it from the stovetop and pour it into a bowl. Cover the bowl with a paper towel and leave it to stand at room temperature for an hour or so, until the sauce has completely cooled. 
2. Bag Up
   Next, pour your marinara sauce into freezer-safe bags. While you can add it all to one bag if you like, we’d recommend splitting it into smaller portion sizes so you can easily remove whatever you need at any given time. Half fill and seal the bags, before leaving them to one side. 
3. Add to a Tupperware Box
   Place your bags of marinara sauce in a Tupperware box. The reason for this is to prevent the bags from ripping in the freezer, as the last thing you want is to be covered in marinara sauce after a freezer mishap! (Just think of Monica from Friends at work, and you will know what we mean).
4. Label and Freeze
   Write today’s date and the use-by date on the lid of the Tupperware box and place your marinara sauce in the freezer. Remember, you can freeze marinara sauce for around six months.

3 Tips for Freezing Marinara Sauce

Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing marinara sauce to have the best results:

Freeze in Portions
While you can freeze marinara sauce all in one go, we’d advise you to separate it into smaller portion sizes, particularly if you’ve prepared a big batch. This makes it easier to defrost the marinara sauce that you need for each recipe and reduces the likelihood of wastage occurring.

Freeze Homemade or Shop-Bought Sauce
For a true Italian culinary experience, homemade marinara sauce is hard to beat. But that being said, you can also freeze shop-bought marinara sauce that comes in a jar. There’s often too much sauce

Freeze Other Types of Pasta Sauce
Although this article has focused on marinara sauce, you can freeze various other tomato-based pasta sauces by following the same steps listed above including puttanesca and arrabbiata sauce.

How Long Can You Freeze Marinara Sauce?

You can freeze marinara sauce for around six months. Freshly prepared marinara sauce will usually be good in the fridge for a week or so after it has been prepared, providing you have covered it well.

But if you want to preserve your batch of marinara sauce for any longer than a week, you will need to get it in the freezer, where it will be good for several months.

You Can Freeze Marinara Sauce for up to 6 Months

How Do You Defrost Marinara Sauce?

Defrosting marinara sauce is easy and the best way to do it is to remove it from the freezer and place it in the fridge. It’s best to do this the night before you plan to cook it, as this will give it sufficient time to thaw thoroughly.

To speed things up, you can place your marinara sauce in the microwave and heat it on low until it has thawed. You can then carry on with cooking it by following the instructions laid out in your chosen recipe.

Can You Refreeze Marinara Sauce?

If you have taken too much marinara sauce out of the freezer to enjoy in one go, the good news is that you can refreeze it. Simply bag it bag up, add it to a Tupperware box, and return it to the freezer.

Just be mindful of the fact that the more you freeze and defrost your sauce, the more likely its taste is to deteriorate.

As such, make sure you consider your portion sizes before freezing the sauce in the first place.

Does Marinara Sauce Freeze Well?

Yes, marinara and other tomato-based pasta sauces freeze really well. Whether homemade or shop-bought, marinara sauce will be good in the freezer for up to six months, so you don’t need to worry about running out of this firm family favourite.

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing marinara sauce or pasta sauce in general, then these may help: