Marinara
A Neapolitan sauce with no pretensions. Tomato, garlic, oil, basil, oregano, done in the time it takes to boil the pasta. Simplicity is not the same as easy.
Born in Naples, the earliest written references appear in the mid-18th century. The name comes from marinaro, sailor, probably because the sauce required no refrigeration and could be made aboard or quickly on return to port.
Only a few ingredients
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Into a wide pan. Medium heat. You're about to add garlic and it must not get ahead of you.
Garlic
Sliced thin. It goes into the oil while the oil is still warming, not after. Low and slow until golden. Watch it.
sliced thinSan Marzano Tomatoes
Crushed by hand before they go in, not blended, by hand. Eight to ten minutes over medium heat. Marinara is quick. Don't overcook it.
crushed by handDried Oregano
Dried, rubbed between your fingers first. It goes in now, not at the end. Needs a little heat to open up.
dried, not freshBasilico Genovese DOP
Torn in when the flame is off. If you cook it, you'll lose what you added it for.
It contains no seafood.
Marinara means sailor's sauce. It has always referred to the people who made it, not to what went into it. Shellfish, anchovies, and shrimp do not belong here. The tomato, garlic, and oregano are the dish, and adding seafood produces something else entirely.
Spaghetti
The Neapolitan standard. Simple enough to let the sauce be the focus.
Penne
Works well. The tubes trap the sauce.
Ready to cook?
These sources we trust. Each one makes it correctly.
Other sauces from the same region
Alle Vongole
The sea served on pasta. Clams, white wine, garlic, parsley, nothing added, nothing covered up.
Puttanesca
A bold, pungent sauce of Neapolitan street food. Built on tomatoes, olives, capers, and anchovies, complex, salty, assertive, and unapologetic.
La Genovese
A Neapolitan ragù built on time and onions. The beef is there, but the onions are the sauce, slow-cooked until they collapse entirely into something sweet, dark, and unlike anything else in Campania.
Colatura di Alici
Colatura from Cetara, the direct descendant of Roman garum. Added raw at the end. The anchovy does all the work.
Alla Carrettiera
Garlic, chili, parsley, and oil, with cherry tomatoes to distinguish it from aglio e olio. A cart-driver's sauce from Campania, designed to be made on the road.
Al Limone
Butter, lemon, and Parmigiano. From the Amalfi Coast, where the lemons are so fragrant they define the landscape. Three ingredients, and every one of them must be excellent.
Alla Nerano
Fried zucchini, aged provolone, basil, and starchy pasta water, a creamy sauce that contains no cream. From the fishing village of Nerano on the Amalfi Coast, made famous by Stanley Tucci.
Alla Natalina
Spaghetti from the Neapolitan countryside, anchovies melted into the oil, walnuts, pine nuts, sultanas, olives, and tomato. Salty, sweet, and completely surprising. The anchovies disappear. Their flavour stays.