Instead of red: 20 pasta sauces that aren’t marinara

Alfredo sauce is basically heavy cream, butter, and Parmesan cheese, which is why fettuccine alfredo earned the nickname “heart attack on a plate.” As the name suggests, alfredo sauce is usually served over fettuccine pasta, but linguine, spaghetti, or any other pasta works just fine. Modern Honey has the recipe.

Looking for a bit of a kick? Amatriciana sauce contains red pepper or red chiles, as well as guanciale (pork cheek), pecorino cheese, tomato, and olive oil, and is named for the Italian town of Amatrice. Sometimes white wine is added, but ironically, not in this recipe from Food and Wine.

Also known as “white sauce,” béchamel is a French sauce made from flour, butter, and milk. Its most common use with pasta is atop lasagna, or moussaka, which is basically Greek lasagna made with eggplant. Add cheese to béchamel and it becomes Mornay sauce! Epicurious has an easy white sauce recipe we recommend.

Black truffles can be expensive, but if you’re treating yourself, why not do it via a spectacular pasta sauce? Recipes can vary, but this one from Jernej Kitchen calls for one truffle plus olive oil, butter, garlic, and parmesan cheese. It may not be cheap, but it’s easy!

Named for the Italian city of Bologna, bolognese is a creamy meat sauce made with just a touch of tomato. The thickness of the sauce lends itself to thicker kinds of pasta like tagliatelle, pappardelle, and fettuccine. Check out the recipe at Bon Appetit. 

Butternut squash can be cooked, pureed, and used as a delicious sauce that is definitely not marinara. As this recipe from Food Network shows, it’s excellent when served over gnocchi.

Heavy cream, egg yolks, pancetta, garlic, cheese, and black pepper go into carbonara sauce, which is traditionally served over spaghetti or linguine. You might also know it for sometimes containing bacon and peas, like in this recipe from The Pioneer Woman.

Cheese sauce isn’t marinara, so why not cook up some mac and cheese? We’re not talking about the powdered-cheese variety, but something a little fancier, like this 4 cheese baked mac and cheese recipe from Cooked by Julie that calls for cheddar, Muenster, Gruyère, and Pecorino.

When cooking with clams, save their sauce for your sauce. Clam sauce is combined with oil, butter, garlic, heavy cream, and parmesan cheese to add an extra taste of seafood to your clams and linguine. The Baker Upstairs has the recipe.

Fra Diavolo looks like marinara sauce, but take a taste, and you’ll notice the difference right away. (Or maybe give it a few seconds…) Red pepper adds some spice to this sauce, along with onions, garlic, herbs, and sometimes a splash of wine. It is best known for the dish shrimp fra diavolo, which you can make at home with this recipe from Pinch and Swirl.

It’s sort of like marinara, but with hearty chunks of beef (or rabbit, duck, etc.) You can serve it over any pasta, but if you use elbow macaroni, it’s essentially the famous New England dish known as American Chop Suey, also known as goulash. The Cozy Cook has an American Chop Suey recipe that’s worth trying.

Mushroom sauce is a versatile option that can be used on pasta as well as meat, tofu, veggies, or whatever you want. Heavy cream adds some richness to the sauce, which is thickened with a cornstarch and broth mixture. Spend with Pennies puts in their two cents with this recipe.

Pine nuts, basil, cheese, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil are all you need for this pesto from Simply Recipes. The word pesto comes from the Italian verb pestare, meaning “to pound,” because the sauce is traditionally made with a mortar and pestle. And, in case you’re wondering: yes, “pestle” also comes from the Latin word for “pound.”

The base of puttanesca sauce is garlic and tomato, but it’s the add-ins that make this Southern Italian pasta dish memorable. Anchovies, olives, and capers are traditional ingredients, as seen in this recipe from Healthy Seasonal Recipes.

Yes, you can make a red wine-based pasta sauce! This recipe from Tasty calls for a full-bodied red, like a cabernet, and mixes it with spaghetti. However, we’re bigger fans of step #9, which includes the direction: “open up another bottle of wine”!

If you’re looking for something similar to marinara but with a twist, try roasted tomato sauce. It’s like regular tomato sauce, but roasted! If you want to know how to make easy roasted tomato sauce, try this article from Simply Delicious: “How to make easy roasted tomato sauce.”

Brown butter is what happens when you heat butter up, but not enough to burn it. Add garlic, chopped walnuts, and sage, and you’ll have a delicious sauce that can be served over pasta, like ravioli, as suggested by this recipe from Budget Bytes.

While pesto is made from pine nuts, salsa di noci is a creamy sauce made from walnuts. All Recipes has a delectable version served over linguine that you can whip up in less than half an hour.

No, we’re not suggesting adding a shot of vodka to your pasta (tried that once in college—wasn’t a good night) but vodka sauce, of course. It does contain vodka (which burns off during cooking) but gets its orange tint from mixing tomato sauce and heavy cream. Penne is the pasta generally associated with vodka sauce, but it’s all good, including rigatoni, like in this recipe from Bon Appetit.

Here’s another booze you probably already know makes a great sauce: white wine. If you’re out of marinara and need to make the sauce, and you have white wine on hand, you probably have all the other necessary ingredients (olive oil, garlic, butter, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper). This recipe from Julie Blanner has the rest of the details.