Recipes for Sauces & Marinades

This is the ultimate pasta dish.

It's unreal with eggs.

After I scraped my bowl clean, I immediately wanted more.

Tastes like a ticket to Paris.

Your kitchen will feel like a fancy restaurant.

It tastes even better than the real thing.

Make now, eat later.

Sauces are the magic touch that makes vegetables more satisfying, and grains even more exciting. Here are 16 easy sauces to learn, memorize, and enjoy.

Besides spaghetti because, duh.

It's liquid gold, y'all.

It does what the can can’t.

Take a plate of greens from blah to ooh-la-la.

A zesty, vibrant herb-packed sauce for everything from meat to potatoes.

Nobody will know it's jarred but you.

Sweet and tangy.

Gremolata is one of those things where the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. Sprinkled over any number of dishes, it will make every mouthful pop with its bright, fresh flavors. Gremolata is so simple that you barely need a recipe, but here’s one all the same, just to get you started.

Plus, it comes together in less than 30 minutes.

The perfect sauce does exist.

It's the best every time.

Plus, you'll have enough leftovers for days.

Ready in minutes.

Freeze it now, enjoy great lasagna later.

It's one of the most important cooking techniques to master.

A simple sauce is the best thing you can do for your meal.

A pan sauce feels like something you read on a menu, doesn’t it? A bit of fancy chef magic that should only be attempted by trained professionals. But here’s the real secret: pan sauces are so incredibly simple. And fast. In the time it takes your steak or pork chop to rest, you can turn those pan drippings into a fantastic sauce, no culinary school degree required. Liquid, in a combination of wine or stock, is used to deglaze the pan and a little butter is added to make things rich.

Poppy seed dressing has a balance of sweet and tangy that I find completely irresistible. The ingredients are easy-to-find; you need white wine vinegar, sugar, and some finely shredded shallot or onion. It’s great on a spinach and strawberry salad, makes a fun spin in a coleslaw, and also does wonders as a marinade for chicken. It’s the jack-of-all-trades of the salad dressing world. This dressing is also surprisingly easy to make yourself.

Plus, two ingredients not normally found in chili.

There is a particular bottled salsa on every table in Costa Rica. It’s called Lizano and the first time you taste it you have to stop and think a minute. Do I like it or not?

Sweet, salty, and sour, and perfect with everything you're grilling this summer.

They're all packed with flavor.

They're easy enough to shake up on a weeknight and go with any kind of salad.

Sausage gravy is one of those dishes that is so basic, you don’t even need a recipe. But it’s also one of those dishes that, in the age of everything being bigger, bolder, and more unique, tends to get lost in the mix. But let’s not let that happen! In this recipe, you only need only a few ingredients – pork sausage, flour, milk, salt, pepper, and hot biscuits – to make Southern sausage gravy.

It steals the scene at every party.

You only need two ingredients.

The better way to compound butter.

This rich, creamy pasta sauce was the result of an experiment. We wanted to make a creamy, mushroom-y pasta topping with no cream. We’re trying to watch our diet a little better, and while we were eating pasta there was no need to indulge in cream, right? Instead, the bulk of this sauce is white wine, broth, and mushrooms. We don’t use a lot of wild mushrooms – they are expensive, and just a few will do here to give flavor. The result?

It’s so stable, you can even refrigerate it and reheat it in the microwave.

It doubles as a marinade.

Don’t even think about whipping up a batch without it.

Don't let a morsel of pan drippings go to waste.

Aioli is an opportunity to change your thinking about mayonnaise, the condiment we buy in a jar and use primarily for function rather than flavor.

Whenever I go to a restaurant that has a salsa bar (always a plus in my book), I skip over the chunky pico de gallo and roasted tomato salsa and head straight to the salsa verde. This tart, slightly spicy salsa always makes whatever I’m pouring it onto so much tastier. It can be slightly harder to find at the store, but it’s actually one of the easiest salsas you can make at home! You just need five ingredients: tomatillos, garlic, cilantro, jalapeño, and salt.

It uses all pantry staples.

And it’s perfect for all your dipping needs.

Spread it on sandwiches, toss it with pasta, or yes, treat yourself a single happy spoonful.

The classic pasta sauce just got a whole lot easier.

The creamy, buttery sauce will upgrade everything from eggs Benedict to asparagus.

My comforting, go-to dinner.

Transform any vegetable into a showstopper.

You're just five ingredients and 15 minutes away from the creamy, cheesy sauce.

It's universally well-received.