Campania · tomato · thin
Best pasta for marinara
A quick tomato sauce with garlic and oregano. Thinner than a ragu, faster than a pomodoro. Strands and small tubes.
- Region
- Campania
- Base
- Tomato
- Texture
- Thin
- Shapes that hold it
- 5
What it asks of a shape
Marinara is a thin tomato-based sauce. It wants a long strand, so the sauce coats every turn of the fork, and a tube, so the sauce rides inside as well as outside. The ranking below scores every profiled shape on those traits, then the shape's own sauce notes break the ties.
What it is
Marinara sauce is a tomato sauce usually made with tomatoes, garlic, herbs, and onions. Variations include capers, olives, spices, and a dash of wine. Widely used in Italian-American cuisine, it is known as alla marinara in its native Italy, where it is typically made with tomatoes, basil, olive oil, garlic, and oregano, but also sometimes with olives, capers, and salted anchovies. It is used for spaghetti and vermicelli, but also with meat or fish.
5 shapes that hold it
Penne lisce
Tubes · Liguria
Without ridges, sauce clings less to the outside, so penne lisce suits smooth sauces that fill the bore: tomato, a light cream, the Sicilian Norma, or a baked dish where the cheese does the holding.
Spaghetti
Long strands · Campania
A strand has no cavity and no ridges, so a sauce must coat it.
Vermicelli
Long strands · Campania
Treat Italian vermicelli as a slightly heavy spaghetti: clams, garlic and oil, tomato.
Ziti
Tubes · Campania
A smooth tube holds sauce inside the bore rather than on the surface, so it wants a sauce with enough body to fill it: a slow ragu, the Neapolitan onion Genovese, a baked tomato and cheese.
Linguine
Long strands · Liguria
More surface, still no cavity.
Sources
- The ranking and the sauce notes are our editorial judgement, from the traits in each shape record. See the method.
- Marinara sauce, Wikipedia (summary, ingredients, origin), CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata Q2088642.