Marinara sauce

Marinara sauce

A plate of ravioli alla marinara
Origin
Place of origin	Italy
Region or state	Naples
Details
Course	Main course
Serving temperature	Hot over pasta
Main ingredient(s)	Tomatoes, garlic, onions, basil
Variations	Olives, capers

Marinara (mariner's) sauce is a southern Italian tomato sauce usually made with tomatoes, garlic, herbs, onions and sometimes seafood.^[1][2] However, there are many variations, some of these include the addition of capers, olives and spices.^[3][4]

Traditional southern Italian cuisine utilizes this sauce to add flavor to pasta, rice, seafood and pizza.^[5][6] This sauce is also widely used in Italian-American cuisine which has diverged significantly from its Old World origins.

Italians refer to marinara sauce only in association with other recipes. For instance, spaghetti alla marinara literally translates to mariner's spaghetti. However, tomato sauce alone in Italy is called salsa di pomodoro or pomarola.

Origin

There are at least two folk theories as to the origin of this sauce: One says cooks aboard Neapolitan ships invented marinara sauce in the mid-16th century after Spaniards introduced the tomato (a New World fruit) to Europe. The original recipe contained no seafood which made it resistant to spoilage due to the high acid content of tomatoes. This made it ideal for lengthy sea voyages hundreds of years before refrigeration methods were invented. Another theory states this was a sauce prepared by the wives of Neapolitan sailors upon their return from sea.^[7]

Historically, however, the first Italian cookbook to include tomato sauce,^[8] Lo Scalo alla Moderna (The Modern Steward), was written by Italian chef Antonio Latini and was published in two volumes in 1692 and 1694. Latini served as the Steward of the First Minister to the Spanish Viceroy of Naples.^[9][10][11]

References

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Marinara Sauce