Sauces & dressings · Pasta sauces

Marinara sauce

Name: Marinara sauce
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 800 g crushed tomatoes, 2 cans; 2 tbsp olive oil; 1 onion yellow onions, finely chopped; 4 cloves garlic, sliced; 1 1/2 tsp dried basil; 1 tsp dried oregano; 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes; 3/4 tsp salt

Tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and time. Sauce is one of the biggest categories in home cooking and this is its baseline — the thing everything else gets compared to, and by a distance the best-scoring sauce on this site.

Time: 35 min (5 prep + 30 cook)
Servings: 6
Per serving: 106 kcal
Protein: 2 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

800 g crushed tomatoes, 2 cans800 g
2 tbsp olive oil28 g
1 onion yellow onions, finely chopped120 g
4 cloves garlic, sliced12 g
1 1/2 tsp dried basil3 g
1 tsp dried oregano2 g
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes1 g
3/4 tsp salt4 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Soften the onion in the oil over medium-low heat, 8 minutes, until sweet and translucent. Then the garlic for a minute — it should never brown.
Add the tomatoes, herbs, pepper flakes and salt.
Simmer uncovered 25–30 minutes, stirring now and then, until it darkens and a spoon dragged through it leaves a trail.
Taste for salt. It keeps a week in the fridge and freezes well in portions.

Why does this score so well?

Because it is mostly tomato and water. Compare it with a cream sauce on the same pasta and the gap is one of the largest single swaps in home cooking — which is exactly why it's worth having a good one on hand.

Alternative

Alfredo saucethe cream one19

Why this score

solidly filling

Low energy density — a lot of food for the calories.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

9% of kcal

84% water

32 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 633 kcal goes into the pot, 970 g of ingredients comes out as ~800 g of food → 79 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 79
Protein: (9%); 2 g
Fat: (45%); 4 g
Carbohydrates: (46%); 9 g
of which sugar: 5 g
Fiber: 3 g
Sodium: 335 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

More sauces & dressings

Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.