In most scenarios, you can use marinara sauce and ketchup interchangeably. However, the ketchup will be slightly lighter and thinner than the thicker and more complex marinated sauce. Tomato sauce may be too thick for a pizza, while marinara may be too thin for dishes such as eggplant, Parmesan and chicken parmesan. Since both sauces are made with tomatoes as a base, it is possible to replace the marinara with tomato sauce.
Using marinara instead of ketchup can make a recipe vegetarian friendly and is a great way to save time when preparing weekday dinners. That said, marinara isn't as heavy or flavorful as ketchup, so the flavor and texture of the finished dish will be very different. Because the two sauces look similar (and can sometimes even taste similar), we often use the names marinara and tomato interchangeably. However, the two sauces are not the same.
According to Taste of Home, marinara sauce cooks much faster than tomato sauce (often less than an hour) and has a less complex flavor profile that usually consists simply of tomatoes, garlic and oregano. Tomato sauce, on the other hand, requires hours of slow cooking and is made with more abundant ingredients, often including a creamy base of roux, meat, and other vegetables and various herbs. As a result, ketchup tends to be much thicker and more robust than its marinated counterpart. Marinara sauce is a quick sauce, seasoned only with garlic, chopped red pepper and basil.
It's best when made with whole San Marzano tomatoes or plums, crushed by hand or passed through a food mill. The marinara can be left in pieces; the texture of the finished sauce is quite loose and the flavor is that of fresh tomatoes. Nowadays, you can find ketchup in all kinds of flavors, and that makes it easy to add flavor quickly to recipes. If you have any form of tomato paste hidden in a closet, then you can create your own tomato sauce substitute.
A good way to prepare for any interruption in tomato sauce consumption is to always have some substitute sauces ready so you can use them when you need them. The tomato sauce substitute ranges from canned tomato, tomato puree made with fresh tomatoes, marinara sauce, diced tomatoes, tomato juice and any spaghetti sauce. Tomato sauce, on the other hand, is more complex, since it starts with mashed tomatoes seasoned with onions, carrots, celery and bay leaves, and is left to simmer until it thickens and has a rich flavor. Because marinara sauce and ketchup have different textures and flavors, they also have different uses.
Marinara sauce, with its finer texture and its simplest flavor, is the best to mix with pasta or spread it on pizza dough. Marinara is a simple sauce made with garlic, chopped red pepper and basil, and is prepared in about an hour. To use this method, you'll need to add a 10 ¾ ounce can of tomato soup to a skillet to start the process. If you use crushed tomatoes, you are more likely to have to cook them for a short time to thicken them up a bit before using them.
If you want to add condiments, you should check that the canned tomatoes you are using are not already seasoned. The rich flavor and thick texture of ketchup make it more suitable for smothering foods such as a sauce. I've even seen a celebrity chef I worked with use ketchup and red pepper as a substitute for ketchup when he had no other options. Fortunately, there are a lot of different things you can use as a substitute for ketchup, and if you run out of it, you can make some quick food-saving recipes.
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