Food - Drink
For Traditional Marinara Sauce, Stop Including This Pungent Ingredient
BY STEPHANIE FRIEDMAN
Italian-American foods generally use plenty of cheese, sauce, garlic, and meat, and one of the most versatile and beloved foods that American culture has adapted from Italian cuisine is marinara sauce. However, if you want to cook traditional Italian marinara sauce for a change, make sure to leave out this ingredient.
Wine, sugar, tomato paste, butter, meatballs, anchovies, and most notably, onions are all absent from traditional Italian marinara sauce. Authentic Italian marinara recipes are simple and typically only use tomatoes, garlic, and basil, rather than onions and other punchy ingredients that Americans may be familiar with.
It's worth noting that tomato sauce, or sugo al pomodoro, is entirely different from marinara, and has the flexibility to include ingredients like onion, celery, and red meat. Other Italian tomato-based sauces may follow the "American" traditions of cooking sauce all day and adding sugar, but traditional marinara does not.
