Marinara sauce is a tomato sauce usually made with tomatoes, garlic, herbs, and onions. Variations include capers, olives, spices, and a dash of wine. Widely used in Italian-American cuisine it is known as alla marinara in Italy, where it is typically made with tomatoes, basil, olive oil, garlic and oregano, but also sometimes olives, capers, and salted anchovies. It is used for spaghetti and vermicelli, but also with meat or fish.

The terms should not be confused with spaghetti marinara, a popular dish in Australia, New Zealand, Spain, and South Africa, in which a tomato-based sauce is mixed with fresh seafood. In Italy, a pasta sauce including seafood is more commonly called alla pescatora.