Who doesn’t love pasta? It isn’t that exciting raw, yet once you cook it and combine it with the right pasta sauce, you have a rich and comforting dish. There’s also an insane scope for variation, including many different types of pasta sauce, pasta, and even entire pasta dishes. That’s not even considering all the ingredients you can serve with your pasta, like pasta with bacon or the filling steak and pasta combo.
Of all the ways we can think about pasta, pasta sauce is easily the most powerful. After all, the sauce you choose impacts the flavor, texture, and appearance of your meal. It even influences what sides go best with your pasta and what ingredients you might mix into it.
Thankfully, there are many delicious pasta sauces to choose from, including tomato-based options like marinara, arrabbiata, and pink sauce, creamy sauces like alfredo, mornay, and carbonara, and plenty of others including four cheese sauce, pesto, and walnut sauce.
Some of these sauces are traditional and require a specific set of ingredients and techniques. Others are modern and versatile, where you can follow your instincts and tweak the recipe however you see fit.
P.S. While some people actually eat pasta raw, it always tastes so much better when well cooked with a delicious sauce.
27 Types Of Pasta Sauce
Tomato-Based Sauces
Marinara
Marinara is arguably the most famous tomato-based pasta sauce. Tomatoes feature heavily, with garlic, herbs, olive oil, salt, and pepper used for balance.
This ingredients list creates a light and thin sauce that’s incredibly versatile. It can be used in a variety of pasta dishes, including pasta bakes, with vegetables, with seafood, and with meatballs. The sauce is even light enough that it can be used as a dip.
The simplicity of marinara also means you can use it as the base for more complex sauces. You could even simply buy a jar of marinara sauce and add whatever extra ingredients you like.
While true marinara is a simple and tomato-forward sauce, there are now many variations. You might notice this if you purchase marinara sauce too, as some products are very different from others.
Pomodoro
Pomodoro sauce has plenty in common with marinara, so much so that it’s easy to mistake one for the other. The flavor profile is one area of difference, as pomodoro sauce focuses much more heavily on tomatoes, with fewer ingredients for extra flavor.
The cooking time is often shorter for pomodoro, which helps the bright flavor of the sauce to shine through. Finally, pomodoro sauce is often thicker than marinara thicker because it uses crushed tomatoes as one of the base ingredients.
Still… while the differences between pomodoro and marinara are obvious to the keen observer, they’re not dramatic. Because of this, the two are interchangeable in many situations.
Amatriciana Sauce
Amatriciana is a bold traditional Italian pasta dish that relies on just a handful of classic ingredients. The name refers to the entire dish, pasta included, but the sauce is exceptional all on its own.
Tomato, cured pork jowl, pepper, Pecorino Romano, and white wine all feature and are all considered essential to the flavor profile. Skip any of them or add something new and you have a different dish entirely.
The cured pork jowl is the most interesting ingredient here and it’s also crucial. Notably, the pork renders during cooking to create a complex and rich flavor.
Arrabbiata
Arrabbiata and amatriciana both rely on tomato-based sauces with a distinct flavor kick. However, while there are plenty of similarities, the differences help make each type of sauce unique.
For amatriciana, the pork jowl is the most distinctive factor, while arrabbiata doesn’t contain any meat at all. This sauce relies on red chili peppers, garlic, and tomatoes instead. The ingredients create a spicy, garlicky, and tomato-rich sauce that’s easy to love.
Puttanesca
Puttanesca is highly distinct among the tomato-based sauces, as it has a complex, salty, and pungent flavor profile. This isn’t surprising, as the sauce uses anchovies, capers, tomatoes, and garlic as some of the main ingredients.
The anchovies are easily the most controversial ingredient in this mix, yet they’re also essential. These create a distinct umami flavor that you won’t get with any other ingredient.
Puttanesca is certainly a bold sauce, making it one you won’t soon forget. The intense flavors are why the sauce is often served with spaghetti and little else. You might have a fresh salad or a loaf of crusty bread alongside, but that’s it. Anything more complex would take away from the sauce.
Pink Sauce
This tomato-based sauce uses cream as one of the main ingredients. The cream changes the color, making this sauce more pink than red. It also cuts through the acidity, giving you a gentler and creamier sauce than you’d get otherwise.
The combo is fantastic in recipes where you’re hoping for smoothness and decadence. You can also play around with the ratio of tomatoes to cream. This gives you full control over the flavor and richness of the sauce.
You could create a version that uses mostly tomatoes and just a little cream, or you could go in the opposite direction and create a creamy sauce with just a hint of tomato flavor.
Vodka Sauce
This sauce often relies on tomatoes and cream as well. There’s just one big difference – the vodka.
Vodka is an interesting addition, as it doesn’t add much flavor to your sauce. Instead, it functions as an emulsifier, helping to bind together the oil and water in your recipe.
When the sauce is made well, the vodka gives you unparalleled smoothness. Don’t worry, you’re not going to end up drunk. Most of the alcohol burns off during cooking and the vodka itself is barely noticeable.
Bolognese
Bolognese squeezes into this section because it uses tomatoes and shares some features with other tomato-based sauces. However, it could also be classified as a meat-based sauce, as meat is the dominant ingredient.
The traditional Italian version uses a base of celery, onions, and carrots that are cooked long and slow. Ground meat is only added once these vegetables have been adequately cooked down.
Not surprisingly, the American version of bolognese is often made differently. Ground beef tends to be one of the first ingredients and cooking time is shorter as well. The result is a simpler and less rich flavor profile. Still… the American version is fast and easy to prepare, making it perfect for weeknight dinners.
Ragu
Ragu and bolognese can be quite similar. That’s not surprising, given that bolognese is technically just a type of ragu.
Both are meat-based sauces with distinct tomato flavors. Ragu often involves cooking pieces of meat in a braising liquid over low heat, softening the meat and intensifying the flavors in the process.
However, bolognese generally sticks with ground meat, while ragu uses larger cuts of meat. This can mean you get chunks of meat in a ragu dish, but not in bolognese.
Ragu is a broad category of sauce, so there are countless variations. You’ll see differences in the type of meat, the seasoning ingredients, and the cooking methods. Some modern versions also rely more heavily on tomatoes, with a decreased focus on the meat.
Sunday Sauce
Sunday sauce is traditionally simmered for hours, making it a labor of love that’s best reserved for the weekends. It often includes a combination of meats, such as sausage and ribs, which each contribute to the complex flavor profile.
The long simmering time for the sauce means that the meats all end up extremely tender and fall apart in your mouth.
Yet, while the meat is central to the dish, there is still plenty of flavor from the tomatoes and other ingredients. This is also an easily adaptable recipe, so you can change up the ingredients based on whatever you have on hand.
Pasta Sauce
There’s one more crucial tomato-based entry – the classic ‘pasta sauce’ you see in cans and jars in the grocery store. This often contains multiple tomato-based ingredients, like fresh tomatoes and tomato paste. There is often plenty of garlic, chopped onions, and herbs, which add to the flavor and texture.
The resulting sauce is typically thicker than marinara, with a more complex flavor profile. This thickness and complexity works well in many recipes, including spaghetti bolognese and pasta bakes. Indeed, this type of sauce is the go-to option for many American families.
There’s no standard recipe for this pasta sauce, so it can vary dramatically between brands. You might need to experiment to find the right version of this sauce for your recipe.
Creamy Sauces
Alfredo
Alfredo sauce was once incredibly simple, made with just parmesan cheese and butter, and served over fettuccine. There wasn’t any cream in the recipe, partly because cream dulls the flavor of cheese and creates quite a different meal.
Yet, if you order alfredo in the United States, you’ll be served a much richer dish. The American version uses ingredients like milk, flour, and cream to create the decadent creamy dish that many people love. Some source of protein may be added as well, with chicken and shrimp being particularly common.
While the pasta, butter, and cheese version of alfredo is the most authentic, both versions are delicious and worth trying.
Carbonara
Carbonara is another popular white creamy sauce, one that’s sometimes mistaken for alfredo. This time, the traditional version relies on eggs, pecorino cheese, pepper, and cured pork (often cured pork cheek, known as guanciale).
Many modern versions mix things up, using ingredients like cream and butter as part of the recipe. Garlic might be added as well to tweak the flavor profile.
Such changes to the recipe are surprisingly controversial. Some people argue that only the original five ingredients should be used. Any variations create a different dish, one that might still be delicious, but isn’t carbonara.
Despite the controversy, carbonara continues to be varied, especially in America. This means you can end up with very different versions of the dish depending on who is preparing it.
Béchamel Sauce
Béchamel is often known simply as white sauce and is a classic French sauce made using butter, milk, flour, salt, and pepper. It’s also known as a mother sauce, meaning that it is the base for a variety of other sauces.
The sauce is similar to alfredo in some ways, offering a similar creaminess without too many extra flavors. And, despite the simplicity, you can serve béchamel sauce over pasta without any extra ingredients.
The mild flavor of béchamel is perfect in some situations, as the sauce adds creaminess without overpowering the other flavors in your recipe.
Mornay
Mornay sauce is very similar to béchamel, simply with added cheese. The traditional version often relies on gruyere cheese or occasionally emmental cheese. It can be seen as a refined sauce, one that’s often served on top of vegetables, as a sauce for eggs, or in some seafood dishes.
In the United States, mornay is often used as the base for macaroni and cheese, with cheddar used as the cheese of choice. Some other American pasta dishes rely on mornay sauce too, like baked pasta dishes and some types of lasagna.
As such, the American version tends to be a comfort food ingredient, making it quite different from the French version of the sauce.
Mushroom Cream Sauce
Then there’s mushroom cream sauce. This often starts with a roux of butter and flour, which is then cooked with either milk or cream to create a thick sauce. Sautéed mushrooms are then added, which provide an interesting flavor and some texture variation.
However, this isn’t a traditional sauce like béchamel or alfredo, so there isn’t really a right or wrong way to make it. Some people even prepare a version of the sauce using canned cream of mushroom soup as a base ingredient. That approach doesn’t create as many nuanced flavors, but is a much easier way to create the sauce.
You can also experiment with the mushrooms in this sauce. So, instead of focusing on regular white mushrooms you might use wild mushrooms for a more complex flavor profile. Just make sure you choose types of mushrooms that are actually safe
Cheese-Based Sauces
Cacio e Pepe
The term Cacio e Pepe simply translates to cheese and pepper, which tells you a lot about the sauce. The dish is simply made by cooking pasta, tossing it with cheese (typically Pecorino Romano or parmesan), starchy water, and cracked pepper.
This approach works much better than you might expect and ends up creamy and delicious (when prepared well). Your choice of cheese is important here, as the cheese has a dramatic impact on the flavor of the dish.
That said, Cacio e Pepe is a tricky dish to get right. Too much heat makes the cheese very stringy, while too little heat isn’t good either.
Baked Cheese Sauces
These cheese sauces provide a rich and creamy texture to pasta bakes. They often rely on a béchamel foundation and then include cream or half and half to make the sauce more luxurious.
Cheese is the crucial factor, as this brings the entire pasta sauce together. Many versions rely on multiple types of cheese, like mozzarella, cheddar, and provolone, to create a layered flavor profile. Other ingredients may be added for flavor as well, like herbs, spices, and garlic.
If you’re following a recipe, look for one that can be baked in the oven without splitting. The type of cheese, the use of acidic ingredients, and the length of time in the oven all play a role in the likelihood of a sauce splitting.
Still… when you get it right, pasta bakes with cheese sauce can be truly amazing. They’re decadent treats that can feel like the ultimate comfort food.
Gorgonzola Sauce
This is another rich and creamy sauce, one that uses gorgonzola as the base ingredient (other types of blue cheese may do the trick too). The gorgonzola adds complexity and a pungent flavor to the sauce, making it quite different from other types of cheese sauce.
Because of the sauce’s intensity, you don’t need many other ingredients. Often just sautéed mushrooms and perhaps some garlic will be enough to make a truly remarkable dish.
Four Cheese Sauce
Four cheese sauce is an Italian creation that lives up to its name and includes four different types of cheese. It’s also known as Quattro Formaggi, a term that is sometimes used to describe four cheese pizza as well.
Using four types of cheese creates a fantastic, complex flavor profile. This sauce is also versatile, one you can use on any type of pasta. That said, penne pasta and pasta shells are especially good, as they help to capture the sauce, giving you stunning saucy bites.
This sauce often uses a combination of parmesan, mozzarella, Romano, and provolone. These cheeses create the perfect balance of flavor, although they’re not completely essential. Some recipes change one or more of the cheeses to create their own variations.
Oil-Based Sauces
Oil-based sauces tend to be lighter. They don’t have the richness as the creamy or cheese-based sauces, making them perfect alongside heavy mains. Herbs are often used to add complexity and make these sauces even more delicious.
Pesto
This is one of the simplest types of sauce, as it often just consists of stirring pesto through your pasta. Doing so gives you a vibrant flavor from the basil, plus a fantastic color.
Modern versions sometimes use different types of pesto, like pesto made using spinach, arugula or oregano. You can even include sun dried tomatoes in the pesto to create a very different flavor profile.
That’s not all. Some versions of pesto change the type of nut as well. This can include making arugula pesto with walnuts or sun dried tomato pesto with almonds. While such variations aren’t pesto in the traditional sense, they’re still excellent as a straightforward sauce for pasta.
Aglio e Olio
Aglio e Olio is as simple as it gets. The name translates to ‘garlic and oil’, which tells you almost everything there is to know about the sauce.
Notably, the pasta truly does rely on just garlic and oil. The garlic is often sliced and slowly sauteed in olive oil. The pasta is then tossed with the garlic and olive oil mixture, plus some starchy pasta water to help with emulsification.
You might sometimes add extra ingredients for flavor, like red pepper flakes or a little parmesan cheese. However, these aren’t essential at all. In fact, the sauce is often best when you stick to the classic ingredients and techniques.
Other Types Of Pasta Sauce
Cashew Cream Sauce
This sauce is perfect if you’re trying to avoid dairy and still want a creamy sauce for your pasta. It’s made by soaking cashews and blending them with water – an approach that gives you a surprisingly rich and creamy sauce. Tweaking the amount of water allows you to create a thicker or thinner sauce.
Many versions of the sauce add extra ingredients to help with the flavor profile. Garlic is an obvious addition and offers a familiar flavor that’s perfect with pasta. Lemon juice works well too, as the bright flavor offsets some of the richness of your cashews.
Then there’s nutritional yeast. This optional ingredient has a nutty cheese-like flavor. It’s one of the best vegan ways to get a cheesy flavor and even offers some potential health benefits.
Avocado Green Goddess Dressing
Avocado green goddess dressing is traditionally a salad dressing, made using blended avocados, herbs, lemon juice, olive oil, and other ingredients. It’s also easily adapted and used as a pasta sauce, where it gives your meal a fantastic vibrant flavor.
Using the dressing for pasta can be as simple as thinning it a little. Adding a little starchy water from your pasta cooking process can work wonders and helps the sauce to stick to your noodles. You could also try some extra olive oil to make the dressing richer.
Beyond this, you might simply use some extra ingredients for flavor. Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast are both excellent ways to add cheesy notes to the dish. This sauce’s flavor profile also makes it fantastic served as part of a hot pasta dish or a pasta salad.
Tahini Sauce
Tahini sauce is typically a condiment and made using a base of ground sesame seeds, lemon juice, garlic, water, and salt. It can sometimes be used for pasta as-is or thinned using pasta water to create the right texture.
The nuttiness and savory notes of tahini sauce make it excellent for pasta dishes with Middle Eastern influences. However, you can easily experiment and create your own versions.
Walnut Sauce
Walnuts are a surprisingly effective ingredient, leading to a creamy and delicious sauce. There’s even a classic Italian sauce called Salsa di Noci that follows the idea.
The Salsa di Noci version includes familiar ingredients like walnuts, cream (or milk), Pecorino Romano cheese (or parmesan), and fresh herbs. Oddly, a slice of bread is included in the recipe too. This is soaked in milk and blended, which adds creaminess and thickness to the cause.
The walnuts can also be toasted before using them in the sauce. While that’s not an essential approach, the toasted walnuts add extra depth to the dish.
Brown Butter And Sage Sauce
This is a classic sauce that involves browning butter to create nutty and caramel-like flavor notes. The sage leaves then provide bright herbal notes that complement the butter and pasta.
Close attention is required with this sauce, as it’s easy to burn the butter or overcook the sage. Still, once you’ve made the sauce a few times, you should have a sense of the timing and find it easy to get into a rhythm.
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