Marinara is a simple Italian tomato sauce made from tomatoes, garlic, herbs, and olive oil. The name comes from the Italian word for “sailor,” and legend says that Italian sailors invented this quick, easy sauce because it could be made from ingredients that kept well on long sea voyages: canned tomatoes, garlic, dried herbs like basil and oregano, and olive oil.

Unlike more complex Italian sauces that might simmer for hours with meat or cream, marinara cooks quickly and relies on just a few fresh flavors. It's what you might find on spaghetti marinara at a restaurant, or as the red sauce served with mozzarella sticks or pizza. The simplicity is what makes it popular: good marinara tastes bright and tomatoey, letting the natural sweetness of the tomatoes shine through without being masked by heavy ingredients.

The word also appears in dishes like chicken marinara, where the sauce is served over breaded chicken. While Americans sometimes use “marinara” to mean any red Italian sauce, traditional marinara specifically means that simple, quick-cooking tomato sauce rather than slow-simmered meat sauces like Bolognese.