[3][4] Widely used in Italian-American cuisine,[5] it is known as alla marinara ('sailor's style') in its native Italy, where it is typically made with tomatoes, basil, olive oil, garlic, and oregano, but also sometimes with olives, capers, and salted anchovies.

[6] 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.

[7] In Italy, a pasta sauce including seafood is more commonly called alla pescatora.

One version states that cooks aboard Neapolitan ships returning from the Americas invented marinara sauce in the mid-16th century after Spaniards introduced the tomato to Europe.

Another theory states this was a sauce prepared by the wives of Neapolitan sailors upon their return from the sea.