Turn Marinara Into A Tangy Flavor Bomb (And All It Takes Is One Extra Ingredient)

A good marinara sauce takes you far in the kitchen. It's the perfect base for so many pasta dishes, from a classic baked ziti to a meaty lasagna and an easy spaghetti and meatballs. Whether you're prepping your own homemade marinara or just trying to improve a jar of store-bought sauce, there's one tangy, spicy ingredient that always takes it up a notch: hot cherry peppers.

Cherry peppers can be spicy, but they're not overwhelmingly hot. They fall somewhere between 2,500 and 5,000 on the Scoville scale — for comparison, a jalapeño falls between 2,500 and 8,000. The peppers are often sold in vinegar, which gives them a spicy tang that's hard to recreate. You can find them in oil, but the vinegar-packed variety is necessary here for that tangy bite.

When adding them to marinara, start small; you can even go with as little as 1 teaspoon to play it safe. Then, adjust the spice level according to taste. If you shop your grocery aisle, you can find them whole, sliced, or even crushed. For ease of blending them into the sauce, the crushed variety is best here.

Pickled cherry peppers are perfect for a rich, acidic tomato sauce, but if you can't find them (or want a mild flavor without the vinegar), another pepper is lurking on store shelves and begging to be added to almost any Italian dish: Calabrian chiles. Calabrian chiles are super flavorful but fairly pricey, and they are much hotter than cherry peppers, with a Scoville range between 25,000 and 40,000. While the price is higher than cherry peppers, a dollop of the chiles and chile oil brings so much flavor and heat to marinara sauce, so you don't need much. One jar goes a long way. You might be more familiar with these peppers than you thought; they're often sold as crushed, dried chile flakes, which are a staple on a slice of pizza.

For less texture variation but more flavor, you can also skip the cherry or Calabrian peppers altogether and simply add the liquid in which they're stored. For a vinegar-based tang, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of that pickled cherry pepper juice. For a bolder, spicier heat level, add a couple teaspoons of Calabrian chile oil. The exact amounts ultimately depend on how much sauce you're making, so start small and build up as desired.