Tomato sauce

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This article is about the sauce often used with pasta. In some countries, "tomato sauce" is also used as a synonym for ketchup.

Tomato sauce is a condiment made with tomatoes, and sometimes also meat, onions, basil, salt, oil, garlic and various spices. A few tomatoes are broiled, skinned and mixed with a small amount of chopped meat, onion and some salt, oil, basil and other spices. This mixture is boiled and is often passed through a sieve before it is packaged or used.

The above description details one of hundreds of different ways a tomato sauce can be produced.

Marinara sauce (from Italian alla marinara 'sailor style') is another term for a simple and generally quickly made tomato sauce for pasta made without meat and usually including tomatoes, onions and herbs. This usage of the term is confined to the United States, while in Italy it refers to seafood sauces for pasta, risotto, or pizza (with or without tomato sauce). Marinara sauce is spicy, often made with large amounts of garlic and chile pepper, but not to the degree of Fra Diavolo sauce. It can be used for any dish that requires tomato sauce, and is generally quicker to prepare than other tomato sauces. It is often used as a dipping sauce for foods such as calzone and fried mozzarella sticks.

Other common regional Italian tomato sauces include Amatriciana (diced tomatoes and pancetta), Arrabbiata (chile pepper), Vodka sauce (vodka and cream), Salsa Cruda (raw tomatoes), and Puttanesca (olives, garlic, anchovies). Most of these well-known sauces are typical of Roman and Neapolitan cuisine. Tomato sauce and pasta (much like olive oil) were rarely consumed in the North of Italy until they became increasingly available, beginning in the 1960s.^{[citation needed]}

In the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and India the term "tomato sauce" normally refers to the condiment otherwise known as tomato ketchup, whereas in Canada and the US, "tomato sauce" replaces "marinara sauce" and never refers to ketchup. In these countries, other sauces made with tomatoes are more usually referred to as pasta sauce etc., depending on their uses. In Australia, the term marinara often refers to a tomato-based seafood dish such as spaghetti marinara or marinara pizza.

Some Italian Americans use the term "gravy" to refer to tomato sauce, especially a tomato sauce with meat. "Sunday gravy" is a common type of long-simmered tomato sauce containing meat (often pork or meatballs; similar to an Italian Neapolitan ragù) that is often identified with Italian-American home cooking. It is generally served over pasta. Others just use the term "sauce" to refer to tomato sauce.^{[citation needed]}Pizza sauce generally refers to a thick, smooth sauce used as a pizza topping. It is similar to but not identical with a marinara sauce, and they are not considered interchangeable. It is, however, not universal; some pizza styles prefer a topping made of sliced, diced, or ground tomatoes with minimal seasoning.

Escoffier included a tomato sauce recipe using salt pork, butter, and a liaison of wheat flour as one of the mother sauces in his master work, Le Guide Culinaire, but it is not commonly used in French cuisine.

Tomato sauce is also used to some extent in Greek cuisine; it is commonly long-simmered and generally spiced with cinnamon and other typical Greek spices. Tomato sauce is also common in Filipino cuisine, where it is almost universally preferred sweet.