I made marinara sauces using 4 celebrity chefs’ recipes, and the best had an unexpected secret ingredient

Guarnaschelli uses a recipe from her late mother, cookbook editor Maria Guarnaschelli.

The ingredients are simple and include whole, peeled canned tomatoes, grated carrots, sugar, onion, garlic, and some spices to bring more flavor.

I was worried adding the whole, peeled tomatoes would create a weird texture (the other recipes used crushed tomatoes) but they broke down nicely as the sauce simmered.

From there, it was mostly a game of watching the pot, stirring occasionally throughout 45 minutes, and pouring in a little water when the sauce started to look dry. I added about 3/4 cups of water throughout this process.

I finished the sauce with a handful of fresh basil and it was ready to pour over some noodles.

Florence’s marinara-sauce recipe takes only about 30 minutes to make and relies on dried herbs for flavor.

His recipe called for canned crushed tomatoes, onion, garlic, sugar, salt and pepper to taste, and dried basil, oregano, and a bay leaf.

While the tomatoes and spices simmered together, I cooked some noodles. In about 35 minutes, I had homemade marinara and pasta ready to go.

I was intrigued by De Laurentiis’ marinara sauce, which incorporates fresh ingredients like onion, garlic, carrot, and celery. Though I’m not a big fan of celery, I figured it would be delicious when sautéed with the other aromatics. 

The recipe also required crushed tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil, salt, black pepper, and a dried bay leaf.

My grocery store didn’t carry any 32-ounce portions of crushed tomatoes, so I picked up a 28-ounce can and used 4 ounces from a 14.5-ounce one.

After a 20-minute sautéeing process, I added the canned tomatoes and bay leaf.

Once everything was stirred, I let the marinara simmer for an hour to meld the flavors.

I was intrigued by Garten’s use of red wine in her marinara-sauce recipe. I know wine is great for deglazing pots and pans, but I hadn’t used it in marinara before.

Garten’s marinara uses a 1/2 cup of wine, crushed tomatoes, fresh parsley, salt, and pepper, and like the other recipes, onion, garlic, and olive oil.

Once the wine had boiled down, I added the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper, which I let simmer for about 15 minutes.

Of the four recipes, Garten’s was my favorite. In addition to being delicious and flavorful, it was very quick to make. I didn’t have any notes on ways to improve it, and I will definitely make it again.

Guarnaschelli’s sauce is also a close second because I loved that it calls for grated carrots, not diced ones. They added an earthy sweetness and great texture to the sauce. It was also a pretty easy recipe and was ready in less than an hour.

The next time I plan on making pasta, I’ll turn to these two marinara-sauce recipes.

This story was originally published on August 22, 2022, and most recently updated on October 14, 2024.