Marinara sauce

Marinara (English: mariner's) sauce is an Italian sauce that originated in Naples, usually made with tomatoes, garlic, herbs, and onions. Its many variations can include the addition of capers, olives and spices. It is occasionally sweetened with a dash of red wine.

This sauce is widely used in Italian-American cuisine, which has greatly diverged from its Old World origins.

Italians refer to marinara sauce only in association with other recipes. For instance, spaghetti alla marinara literally translates to "spaghetti mariner's style" (from the adjective marinara with the feminine suffix -a pertaining to salsa, Italian for sauce), but tomato sauce alone in Italy is called sugo/salsa al/di pomodoro or pummarola (the latter being Neapolitan language).

Origin

Several folk theories exist as to the origin of this sauce: One version states that 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 did not contain seafood, so it was 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.