Key takeaways
• Marinara sauce is a quick cooked sauce ready on as little as 10 minutes, up to a maximum of 45. As it is quickly cooked, it has a vibrant red color and fairly thin texture.
• Tomato sauce requires a long Sim that allows you to develop a rich flavor. Unlike Marinara sauce, which is almost always vegan, tomato sauce often requires animal fat, such as bacon or pancetta.
For a long time, I assumed Marinara sauce and tomato sauce were the same thing – an Italian sauce made with tomatoes. Kind of like soda and pop. It was only several years ago when I served at an Italian restaurant in Los Angeles that I learned that they are not the same.
I spent some time this year working with Italian American chef, Scott Cavagnaro (boss Cava), who runs a private dining room and event company and knew he would be the perfect person to give me an overview of what makes Marinara and tomato sauce different. Here’s what I learned.
What is marinara sauce?
“A marinara is a type of sauce that is not cooked very long,” explains chef Cava. Typically, Marinara sauce is not cooked longer than 45 minutes. It only needs to cook until the tomatoes no longer have a raw taste. This can take as little as 10 minutes.
Marinara is a rather thin sauce with a vibrant red color, but in chef Cava’s opinion, it lacks the overall depth, especially compared to tomato sauce. Marinara is on the sweeter side with just a bit of sharpness, and that’s usually what Americans refer to when they say spaghetti sauce. In Italy it is called alla marinara.
Recipes vary from person to person and region to region, but you will always find garlic, onion and basil on the ingredient list for Marinara sauce. Because the taste is very tomato-forward, it is best to use high quality canned can when manufacturing marinara sauce.
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What is tomato sauce?
Tomato sauce is known as sauce tomato in French and is referred to as Sunday sauce among some Italian Americans. It is a thick tomato -based sauce with a layered, complex flavor.
This sauce requires a long Sim that allows you to develop a rich flavor. Unlike Marinara sauce, which is almost always vegan, tomato sauce usually requires the use of animal fat, such as bacon or pancetta. Many traditional tomato sauces also include meat stock for added flavor, such as beef stock or chicken stock.
Aromats such as carrots, celery or purre are often used in addition to garlic and onions. They are sautéed in the rendered animal fat before flour is added to form a roux which, in addition to the long, slow Sims, is the reason why tomato sauce has such a thick, sauce-like texture.
When to use Marinara Sauce vs. Tomato sauce
Apart from using Marinara as a pasta sauce, it is often used on pizza and in other classics such as meatballs and chicken or eggplant parmesan. For chef Cava, there is no better use of Marinara sauce than to dip Mozzarella sticks in.
Since tomato sauce is heavier, with a more pronounced taste, it is perfect for cordial pasta dishes such as spaghetti and meatballs or chicken cacciators. “I want a tomato sauce with any kind of pasta,” said chef Cava.
Generally, it just depends on what you’re cooking. Tomato sauce can sometimes overlead simpler dishes, whereas Marinara sauce is not fierce enough for dishes like lasagna that require thick layers of sauce. However, using Marinara sauce makes your bowl of vegan/vegetarian, which can make it a very useful replacement for tomato sauce when needed.
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