The Quick Tomato Marinara That Changes Everything
Here’s the thing about store-bought pasta sauce – once you taste homemade, you’ll wonder what took you so long. This marinara sauce recipe requires 5 basic ingredients and yields rich, authentic marinara flavor. It’s super easy to make – no chopping required. Unlike most store-bought sauces, this marinara is free of added sugar. The secret lies in using high-quality canned tomatoes and letting the sauce simmer just long enough to meld those simple flavors together.
My go-to recipe is inspired by Marcella Hazan’s famously simple tomato butter sauce, although I’ve tweaked it over the years to make it my own. It’s such a rich and flavorful sauce, it doesn’t even need Parmesan cheese when tossed with pasta. The beauty of this sauce is its versatility – it works just as well on pizza as it does in lasagna.
Five-Minute Stir-Fry Sauce For Every Occasion
Making stir fry at home has never been easier with this 5-minute stir fry sauce recipe made from scratch. Whisk together the simple ingredients – or shake them up in a jar – and add it to your favorite stir fry ingredients. The magic happens when you combine soy sauce, fresh ginger, garlic, and just a touch of honey for balance. There’s something magical about a good stir fry sauce – that perfect balance of salty, sweet, and tangy that clings to every bite. This version is pantry-friendly, naturally gluten-free with one swap, and comes together in just 5 minutes using basic ingredients you probably already have.
What makes this sauce truly special is its adaptability – you can use it on chicken, beef, tofu, or whatever vegetables need rescuing from your fridge. It marries up well with frozen veggies, shrimp, tofu, whatever other proteins you have on hand or enjoy, and my favorite – the random vegetables you need to use up in your fridge.
Classic Alfredo That Actually Works
White sauce – or bechamel, if you use its French name – is one of the five mother sauces taught in culinary schools. Its simplicity makes it a blank canvas for creativity; once you’ve mastered it, you can go wild and add ingredients like spices and cheese. It’s quick and easy, and forms the backbone of everything from our best mac and cheese recipes to scalloped potatoes with ham. The foundation is surprisingly simple: butter, flour, and milk create the base, with Parmesan cheese transforming it into liquid gold.
Put the store-bought jar down – our easy Alfredo will make you a homemade pasta sauce believer. Whether you use it in classic chicken Alfredo or turn it into a winning app, this is the time to do it right. The key is keeping the temperature moderate and whisking constantly to prevent any lumps from forming.
No-Fail Hollandaise In Your Blender
This recipe is easy and no-fail. It takes just 5 minutes in a blender. It takes just 5 minutes in a blender! Hollandaise sauce is a classic creamy sauce that’s perfect for breakfast or brunch! The secret is using hot butter – not just melted, but actually hot – and streaming it into your blended egg mixture. The recipe will not emulsify with luke warm butter.
This isn’t just for eggs Benedict anymore. Drizzle it on top of poached eggs, eggs Benedict, vegetables or several other recipes for a delicious finishing touch. It’s got the creamiest consistency and its flavors meld beautifully with ingredients such as eggs, asparagus, or salmon. Once you master the basic technique, you can experiment with variations like adding fresh herbs or a squeeze of lemon.
Pesto Alfredo Fusion Sauce
Take my Italian American-style Alfredo Sauce and blend it with some fresh Basil Pesto and the combination is a match made in pasta heaven. It’s creamy, cheesy and has that amazing herbal pesto flavor all in one. It’s so easy to make. This hybrid sauce brings together two Italian favorites in a way that’ll make you question why anyone settles for just one or the other.
This homemade pesto Alfredo sauce is a quick and easy pasta sauce prepared with parmesan, garlic, heavy cream, and a touch of basil pesto. It’s ultra rich, creamy, and packed with flavor. Possibly the best Alfredo sauce I’ve ever had! The beauty is that you can adjust the pesto ratio to your taste – more for herbaceous punch, less if you prefer the creaminess to dominate.
Honey Teriyaki That Beats Store-Bought
Honey Teriyaki Sauce has the perfect balance of sweet and savoury with a slight bite of ginger and sake. It takes minutes to make your own! The traditional Japanese approach combines soy sauce, mirin, and sake, but adding honey gives it a depth that sugar simply can’t match. Making your own Honey Teriyaki Sauce from scratch is easier than you think and once you do, you’ll never go back to store bought sauce. It’s such a wonderful balance of flavours, you’ll want to brush it onto everything! This Honey Teriyaki Sauce is going to become your ‘go to’ Teriyaki Sauce from now on, I promise.
The versatility extends far beyond chicken and rice. This delicious and versatile sauce needs only 5 ingredients, 5 minutes and no refined sugar. Goes on everything. Chicken, salmon, beef, pork, shrimp, tofu, noodles, rice, vegetables, you name it! The sauce thickens as it cools, creating that perfect glossy coating that makes everything look restaurant-quality.
Basic White Sauce Mastery
The main ingredients for a basic white sauce recipe are butter, flour and milk or cream. That’s it. Make a roux with the butter and flour, slowly add the liquid and stir until it thickens. A pinch of salt and pepper (and often nutmeg) is all it needs for seasoning. This foundational sauce is like learning to ride a bike – once you get it, you’ve unlocked dozens of other possibilities.
Think of white sauce as your blank canvas. When it’s thin and pourable, drizzle it over grilled fish or steamed asparagus; when it’s fully thickened, it forms the base for dishes like biscuits and sausage Add cheese for a mornay, herbs for a velouté, or keep it simple for the perfect base in casseroles and gratins.
Honey Mustard Magic In Minutes
5 Minute Honey Mustard Sauce – just 5 ingredients to this smooth and creamy dipping sauce that can double as a dressing! Sometimes the simplest combinations create the most satisfying results. Honey and mustard seem like obvious partners, but getting the balance right makes all the difference between bland and brilliant.
The key to exceptional honey mustard lies in using quality Dijon mustard and real honey, not the processed versions. Start with equal parts and adjust from there – more honey if you like it sweeter, more mustard for tang. Make this five-ingredient cocktail sauce in just 30 seconds from the contents of your condiment shelf. It works equally well as a dipping sauce for chicken nuggets or as a salad dressing.
Green Sauce That Goes With Everything
First up: Our Good-on-Everything Green Sauce. This blender sauce is a lovely way to take advantage of those soft herbs tucked inside your crisper drawer and as the name suggests, you can use it on everything from meat to scrambled eggs to salads. Think of it as pesto’s more adventurous cousin – made with whatever green herbs you have on hand rather than strictly basil.
Punchy, salty, bright green sauce packed with fresh basil, chives, garlic, and a bit of oregano. This sauce can be poured out just about anything! The beauty of green sauce is its forgiving nature – parsley, cilantro, chives, even spinach can work depending on what you’re pairing it with.
Quick Pan Sauce From Drippings
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. While your steak or pork chop rests, those beautiful browned bits in the bottom of your pan become the foundation for something spectacular.
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. Pan sauces are designed to turn the browned bits in the bottom of a pan, lovingly known as fond, into a base for making sauce or gravy for the cooked meat. A splash of wine, some butter, maybe cream – suddenly your weeknight dinner looks like fine dining.
Cashew Cream Sauce For Plant-Based Cooking
Cashew Sauce! Just four easy ingredients: cashews, garlic, salt, and water! Perfect base sauce recipe for pasta, dips, or cheesy sauce alternatives. Vegan. Raw cashews create the creamiest, richest base you’ve never thought to try. Soak them for a few hours or use hot water for a quick fifteen-minute softening – then blend until completely smooth.
This isn’t just for vegans. The neutral flavor makes it incredibly versatile, and you can season it any direction you want. Add nutritional yeast for cheesy notes, herbs for freshness, or spices for heat. It keeps in the fridge for several days and actually improves as the flavors meld together.
Romesco – The Spanish Secret Weapon
Olive-oil fried nuts and breadcrumbs, whole tomatoes and jarred peppers get blitzed in a food processor to become this roasty, toasty sauce that’s interlaced with a fascinating texture. Traditional Romesco sauce is said to have originated in the Spanish region of Catalonia, where fishermen found it paired well with their fresh catch. This isn’t just another red sauce – it’s got complexity that develops with every bite.
Romesco Sauce! Ready in 5 minutes and perfect for serving with grilled chicken, vegetables, crispy potatoes, eggs, and more. Made with roasted red peppers, plum tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, salt, parsley. The combination of nuts, peppers, and tomatoes creates something entirely unique – earthy, sweet, and just a little smoky. It’s the kind of sauce that makes people ask for the recipe.
The beauty of mastering these twelve sauces lies not just in the recipes themselves, but in the confidence they build. Once you understand how a roux works, how emulsions come together, and how to balance sweet and salty, you’re not just following recipes anymore – you’re cooking intuitively. Each of these sauces represents a technique that opens doors to countless variations and improvements. The real magic happens when you stop measuring and start tasting, adjusting, and making each sauce your own. What would you drizzle first?
