A tomato sauce or a marinara sauce is anything you want to make it.
I think so many are used to that tomato sauce in a can that is really tomato puree with af ew herbs, that we forget about any other kind.
My marinara is sort of chunky because I use whole canned Italian plum tomatoes and break them up with my fingers...
Add onions green pepper garlic a bit of red wine, basil, and oregano a bay leaf or 2...some grated carrot for sweetness....2 hours or so cooking and there you have it. Salt and pepper as needed...Some people add celery, but I don't

Here's mine:

Marinara Sauce:

1/8 to 1/4 cup (approximately) extra virgin olive oil
1/2 large Spanish onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, skin removed and smashed by pressing with side of heavy knife
2 medium sized ripe tomatoes, diced
2 Tablespoons tomato paste concentrate (ORO DI PARMA if you can get it - comes in squeeze tube and is made in Italy)
1/4 teaspoon sugar (no more than that !)
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup hot water with 1 Knorr chicken broth cube dissolved in it
1 teaspoon each dried oregano and thyme (or fresh leaves chopped)
2 large fresh leaves basil chopped fine
few sprigs of flatleaf Italian parsley, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Put a couple of spoonfuls of the olive oil in a heavy heated frying pan and add the garlic and onion, fry gently while stirring on medium heat until lightly brown

2. Add chopped tomatoes and stir and brown some more. Gradually add more olive oil as needed while you are cooking. Meanwhile heat the cup of water in small saucepan and dissolve the chicken stock cube in it and stir.

3. Add the wine, chicken stock, tomato paste, basil, thyme, parsley, oregano a bit of salt, sugar and some freshly ground pepper to the frying pan mixture, mix well and when it begins to boil, turn heat down to low so it barely simmers. Cook for about another 25 minutes. If it starts drying out, add a bit of water and cover with foil. It should reduce down until it is thick but still juicy. If frying pan is too wide you can also put it all into a smaller saucepan at this point, but it has to cook until about half of the liquid has reduced down.

4. Serve over pasta, cooked chicken breasts or anything that needs a rich tomato sauce.

SharonCb

Hi Teresa:
You are right !!!

If I use fresh tomatoes, I just pulse them in a Blender and leave small pieces.

Here is one of my recipes for Marinara Sauce .

To make Ciappino, I use a Marinara Sauce but I usually wing it.
Ingredients :
1 - 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
1 cup of Chopped Onions
1/2 cup of Chopped Green Peppers
4 Cloves of Garlic chopped small or
1 teaspoon of Garlic powder
Spices:
1/2 teaspoon of Basil
1/4 teaspoon of Oregano
1/4 teaspoon of Old Bay seasoning
1 Teaspoon of Salt, add more later to taste.
1 tablespoon of Sugar for acidity
1/3 cup of fresh Parsley or
3 tablespoons of Parsley flakes
1/4 teaspoon of Black Pepper
an Italian pinch of Red pepper, if you like it hotter.

I start with a 28 ounce can of Contadina or Tutto Rosso
Crushed tomatoes
I have used San Marsano but they cost 5 times more.
and I get the same results.
Put the Tomatoes in a pot, on the range top and start to
simmer. Total time about 30 minutes.
Add a little water if it is too thick, stirring often.
If you burn it, you get the wooden spoon treatment.

Meanwhile : Put the Onions , Green Peppers and Garlic,
in a Micro wave safe bowl with 2 tablespoons of water.
Nuke them for about 2 minutes , or until softened a little.
Then put them into the simmering Tomatoes.
Add all the spices.

When the Tomatoes have simmered at least 1/2 hour.
Give them a taste test . Add whatever spices you like.
I use a lot of garlic and parsley in Marinara Sauce.
I don�t cook it as long as Spaghetti Sauce.
Now put in the fishes and seafood of your choice.
Put in a small can of Minced Clams with the juices.
Mussels, calms, crabs, Scallops .
Then lay in the fillets of your choice.
.
I forgot the Red Wine.!!!!! Drink a glass while you're making this.!!!
Save me a portion and some bread for dipping.
LOU

Spaghetti w Scallops in Marinara Sauce

This one has become a favorite in our house. Super easy and full of flavor.

Basic Marinara
Source: Cooking Light October 2007

3T olive oil
3 c chopped onion
1T sugar
3T minced garlic (about 6 cloves)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp dried basil
1-1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
2T balsamic vinegar
2 c chicken broth
3 28oz cans crushed tomatoes

Heat oil in large stockpot over medium heat. Add onion, cook 4 minutes stirring frequently. Add sugar and next 7 ingredients (through fennel), cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in vinegar, cook 30 seconds. Add broth and tomatoes, bring to a simmer. Cook over low heat 50-60 minutes until thickened, stirring occasionally.

Yield: about 12 cups sauce

Linda

Would these be good for lasagne? BF has requested lasagne for our Christmas dinner together. My usual marinara is Newman's Own, lol! This time I'd like to make it from scratch, (to save money mostly). I'm thinking as long as I'm doing that I should make extra to freeze too!! I ran out of my home canned stuff WAY too early!

Lou, I've got a question...

Here, marinara is usually served with fish/seafood pasta dishes or something like fried calamari & marinara. Doesn't marinara translate to "of the sea" or something to do with sailors? In other parts of the country I've ran into the word marinara being used to describe such things as a smooth tomato sauce served over cheese ravs.

What's the Italian American tradition for marinara?

/tricia

It freezes fine, Lpink. I make Giada's Simple Tomato Sauce, blend it, cool, then freeze in containers suitable for cooking for one.

These all look delicious!

Teresa

This link below has an Historical definition of marinara sauce at the bottom of the page, it's interesting. Marinara sauce means loosely "sauce of the sailors" and doesn't have anything to do with having seafood in it. Marinara sauce has no meat in it.

Here is a link that might be useful: basic marinara sauce

Tricia:
You are right on the first part but
I never knew it to be a smooth tomato sauce.

In my Italian neighborhood; traditionally, everyone did like I Posted.
They used Marina Sauce for a Seafood Sauce.
Arkansas_girl:
You are right too, being the " Sauce of Sailors "
I appreciate the History lesson.

The Marinara Sauce I described in my Post above was used to make Ciappino.
As far as I know; from my uncles, the sailors added fish, or Seafood,
to the Marinara Sauce, when it was available.
I can't ask them to verify this.They are not here anymore.

They were from Abruzzo, Italy, so Seafood was plentiful.

I've cooked many Marinara Sauces while visiting them.
Most of the time Whiting Fish ( Merluza )was added, when it was almost done cooking.
Lou

Cioppino originated with the Italian fishermen in San Francisco. some say the name is from the fisherman's cry to chip in some of the day's catch into the soup pot, but another probably more reliable source says the name is from an Italian word meaning chopped.
When I have eaten cioppino in San Francisco it has mussels, clams and crab as well as chunks of fish. The base is pretty well what a marinara is, but cioppino is a stew...not a sauce to put over pasta.
I don't have any doubts that the same sort of thing may bave been made it Italy, but the name cioppino originated with the Italian fishermen in San Francisco.

I sure have been served a marinara for dipping things like breadsticks or with fried calmari or as was mentioned on another thread for dipping calzone.

And then there's a pomadoro sauce....which I guess varies with the cook...thicker? Fresh tomatoes? canned....
It's all good...as ms Stein said..."a rose is a rose..."and Will Shakespear said 'a rose by any other name will still smell as sweet"

Here is a link that might be useful: cioppina

With a little help from my friends, I made a pretty darn good marinara sauce today! I use a 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes, a 14 oz. can of stewed tomatoes (that I laboriously cut up with scissors), and a tablespoon of tomato paste from the freezer. First I sauteed some diced onion, garlic and green bell pepper in some olive oil, then added in the tomato products, some thyme, dried basil, oregano, s&p, a spoonful of sugar and a dash of cayenne. Cooked it all for 30 minutes, then stirred in a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and some fresh chopped parsley and basil (remember the plant on the kitchen windowsill that's been growing since May???). It was yummy on some vermicelli pasta and I have 3 containers in the freezer!

Thank you all!
Teresa

I don't know if my standard tomato-based pasta sauce is marinara. It is like Teresa's but even simpler. When I first made red sauce it was more elaborate and was cooked for a long time. Over the years I kept eliminating ingredients I decided were unnecessary and I decided I liked a fresher tasting, less cooked sauce. I consider all the ingredients I now use essential, except possibly the parsley and bay leaf.

I start with about 2 Tbsp. of olive oiil for each serving. Finely minced fresh garlic is briefly sauteed and chopped fresh or crushed canned tomatoes are added. If using whole canned tomatoes, I mush them by squeezing through my fingers. (It's fun, Teresa. Try it!) Then basil, parsley, a bay leaf and a bit of crushed red pepper are added. If fresh tomatoes are used, a little salt is added. The sauce is cooked while the rest of the meal is cooked, which might be just a few minutes. That's long enough. I add a drizzle more of olive oil at the end which will not be cooked.

A sufficient amount of good, flavorful olive oil is very important. With that as a base, the amounts of the other ingredients, even the tomatoes, are very flexible.

Jim

There's no rule about how to make a maranara. Make it your way. An Italian lady gave me the recipe I use and it has these ingredients:

Bacon, finely diced and fried, saving drippings.
Saute lots of onion in drippings along with a minced garlic clove or two.
Add tomatoes (fresh chopped, or canned, put thru a blender until small chopped).

The bacon makes it!