The Ultimate Guide to Marinara Sauce

I could just give you my "Best" Marinara Sauce recipe but I really think it's important to understand each step and how it makes this simple marinara sauce so delicious. It's simple ingredients with simple steps to make this Italian staple and understanding the reasoning behind it can make you a better cook!

Looking for more Italian Sauce recipes? Try our Authentic Italian Sunday Sauceor Creamy Lemon Sauce.

[feast_advanced_jump_to]

What is Marinara Sauce?

Marinara sauce is a simple Italian tomato sauce cooked in under 30 minutes. It's a meatless sauce made with 5 simple ingredients. It is the base of a lot of other sauces, like a Sunday Sauce or Authentic Bolognese.

Marinara sauce can be used for dipping bread, serving with pasta, topping a pizza, or serving on a sandwich like an Eggplant Parm Sandwich. We use it in our Better Than Olive Garden Eggplant Parmigianaand our Classic Italian Fried Meatballs.

Marinara is an Italian recipe, but it wasn't invented until the Italians came back from exploring the Americas. Tomatoes weren't native to Italy in the 16th century. It was likely developed somewhere in Sicily or Naples once tomatoes were brought back to Italy.

Below, I'm going to provide you with not only directions on how to make marinara sauce but a guide on the importance of each step. You can look up a marinara sauce on every crevice of the internet, but I want this to be a comprehensive guide on how the sauce develops and why we use certain ingredients.

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Whole Plum Tomatoes. Use whole plum tomatoes. San Marzano tomatoes are some of my favorite but there are other good varieties out there as well. I like to use whole plum tomatoes and let them break down vs. using a can of crushed tomatoes. The sauce is a little thinner, and you have more texture.
• Basil. Fresh basil, not dried. And only add it at the end. Basil is a delicate flavor and gets lost in the sauce. Add it at the end to hit the sauce with a bright flavor.
• Garlic. Whole garlic cloves only. Slice your own garlic and don't substitute pre-minced garlic. Slice the garlic right before you're about to cook. The longer the garlic sits, the more intense the flavor becomes.
• Olive Oil. High-quality single-olive olive oil. Find an olive oil you like that uses a single type of olive to make the oil. That's the most surefire way to find a consistently good-quality olive oil.
• Salt. Taste the sauce and salt throughout.
• Crushed Red Pepper. I like a little crushed red pepper sauteed with my garlic to give the sauce just a tiny bit of zing. Substitute Calabrian Chili peppers to make a Spicy Marinara Sauce!

*Please see the recipe card below for more information on ingredients.

How to Make Marinara Sauce

You want to be able to make this staple at the drop of a hat. It's important to have recipes like this in the back of my head for when we need a quick meal. Marinara sauce is perfect for when you have nothing in the fridge but need to get something on the table, or when you need a sauce for a meal like Italian Stuffed Peppers in Tomato Sauce. You can have your frozen marinara sauce defrosted in just a few minutes!

Step 1: Slice garlic thin and evenly. Don't mince and don't add whole garlic.

Step 2: Add the olive oil to the pan on medium heat. Once hot, stir in the garlic for 1 minute.

Step 3: Add the crushed red pepper and continue stirring for 1 more minute.

Step 4: Pour in the whole plum tomatoes. Use a wooden spoon to lightly break them apart. Add the salt and bring to a simmer.

Step 5: Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and using the wooden spoon to break up the tomatoes as they break down from the heat.

Step 6: Add the basil leaves in the last 5 minutes of simmering. Remove from the heat and serve with pasta, eggplant, meatballs, or any of your favorite Italian classics.

Learning a staple like marinara sauce is a great way to start to learn Italian cooking. Marinara is the base of so many different recipes, like Creamy Red Pepper Sauce or Italian Pink Sauce with Sausage! It can be just served with pasta or over a Classic Creamy Polenta.

Pro-Tips

1. Slice garlic evenly so that it cooks at the same rate and doesn't burn. 
2. Add only a small bit of crushed red pepper for flavor, not to make it spicy.
3. Use the back of the wooden spoon to break apart the tomatoes. The heat will help break them down, so don't worry too much about this in the beginning. Let the heat do its job. 
4. Basil goes in at the end. Basil flavor can disappear quickly when cooked so it's best to add it right before serving. 
5. Salt throughout the process by tasting occasionally to see if the sauce needs more salt. ½ teaspoon usually is plenty, but always taste to be certain. 

What to Serve with Marinara Sauce

Marinara sauce is used in so many of my recipes. It can be served with virtually anything. Here are some of my favorite combinations.

• Chicken. Serve it over Italian Chicken Cutlets or use it in our Chicken Rollatini recipe!
• Pork. Serve it on an Italian Sausage and Peppers sandwich with fresh mozzarella or top Classic Pork Chop Milanese with some sauce!
• Beef. Of course, it goes great with sausage and Classic Italian Fried Meatballs! Whether you bake or fry your meatballs, you can serve them with marinara! (Read more about Should you Bake or Fry Meatballs for the best results)
• Pasta. Marinara is great over any pasta. It's an easy way to get dinner on the table in 30 minutes. Just hit it with some parmigiana, and you have a meal!
• Veggies. Serve it with some of your favorite crispy veggie appetizers like Polpette di Melanzane (Eggplant Meatballs) or Fried Cauliflower Cakes.

Recipe FAQs

Can I add onion to my marinara sauce?

Not really, no. Onion is an overpowering flavor. This simple sauce uses the delicate flavors of garlic, crushed red pepper, and basil to make this delicious flavor. Onion has no part in this recipe. Also, I just don't like loose chopped onions in a sauce on my pasta.

What is the difference between marinara sauce and spaghetti sauce?

Well, for starters, there's no such thing as spaghetti sauce. There are a million different types of sauce you can put on spaghetti. Some people refer to the sauce that comes ready-made in a jar as spaghetti sauce. Marinara sauce is a fresh sauce made in 30 minutes.

What is the difference between marinara sauce and Sunday sauce?

Sunday sauce is braised over hours while marinara is cooked quickly. Marinara sauce has a brighter, more in-your-face flavor, while Sunday sauce is more subtle and complex. Sunday sauce also must be cooked with meat.

More Italian Sauces

• Creamy Lemon Sauce
• Creamy Red Pepper Sauce
• Authentic Italian Sunday Sauce
• Authentic Bolognese