What is difference between pasta sauce and marinara sauce?

One of the key differences is that pasta sauce is more robust and complex, with a longer list of ingredients and a rich flavor. Marinara usually doesn't contain meat (while spaghetti sauce does), giving it a finer texture. Marinara is traditionally used as a dipping sauce, while pasta sauce is not. It's a thick sauce made with guanciale (cured pork cheeks), pecorino Romano cheese, and sometimes onions.

It can refer to the simplest form of pasta sauce made with tomato puree and salt, to traditional French sauce that takes hours to prepare, or to any type of tomato-based sauce. Since pasta sauce often includes meat, it also has a strong meat flavor that goes exceptionally well with soft pasta. In today's post, I'll review all the traits that make each sauce its own, along with some of its alternatives. In addition, marinara sauce is an excellent dipping sauce, while pasta sauce is not normally used as such.

If you are going to prepare stuffed pasta such as tortellini, manicotti or pansotti, you have to try the alla Norma sauce. The flavor may be a little different, but since both sauces come from tomatoes, the gap won't be as noticeable. In addition, thickening it by simmering it or adding some tomato paste is also a great way to mimic the consistency of pasta sauce. It has an authentic Italian marinara flavor and a pleasant sweetness that comes only from plum tomatoes.

In my Italian opinion, standard spaghetti or tomato sauce sauce are quite soft, whether thick or thin, and probably use strained tomatoes. In addition to tomatoes, this delicious Sicilian sauce also includes juicy eggplants and creamy ricotta cheese in its ingredient. If you decide to add meat to spaghetti sauce, you'll often have to start by sautéing the onions, garlic and meat. It is mixed with pasta for any number of quick and easy weeknight dinners, simmered with eggs to make shashuka, or spread on homemade pizza dough.

In addition to replacing pasta and marinara sauce with each other, there are also several tomato-based substitutes you can try. Marinara is a simple sauce made with garlic, chopped red pepper and basil, and is prepared in about an hour. That's not to say that this sauce is inferior to pasta sauce in any way, since both are irresistibly delicious, just in different ways.

Jeannette Klingenberger
Jeannette Klingenberger

Proud beer fanatic. Freelance web specialist. Subtly charming tv nerd. Wannabe coffee fan. Subtly charming tv ninja.