Marinara sauce is a lot like a chunky tomato sauce. Think of it as Italian salsa, if you will. Marinara works well on pasta but, unlike a straight up tomato sauce, it also works well on other meats, like breaded chicken cutlets and sea foods like clams and shrimp. It's tomato sauce when you want a basic, zesty red sauce to highlight the food but not drown it.
Basically take a 24 oz can of crushed tomatoes and throw it in a sauce pan along with about 3 handfuls of chopped white onion. Add 2-3 cloves of garlic (crushed), 1/2 cup of red wine, 1/2 cup of water, 2 cans of tomato paste, 3 table spoons of olive oil, a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of sugar, 4-6 fresh basil leaves, a pinch of pepper, 1 teaspoon of oregano and thyme. Boil it for a bit in the sauce span, while stirring, and reducing the liquid content. Remove the basil leaves. I also like to add a dash of Tabasco and about a teaspoon of anchovy paste for some extra zing.
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