How One Beloved Cheese Makes Store-Bought Marinara Creamy And More Flavorful

At the end of a long day, all we want is to come home and cook an easy dinner. Store-bought ingredients are great for keeping things quick, but they can sometimes lack that restaurant-style flavor you crave. If you want to zhuzh up a good store-bought marinara sauce to make it rich, creamy, and full of flavor, just whisk in some Boursin cheese. If you're cooking a whole jar of marinara, it's fine to use the entire round of Boursin. To make sure it's to your preferred flavor and texture, though, you can start with just a quarter, whisk until fully combined, and add more until the sauce becomes what you're looking for.

Boursin comes in plenty of flavor varieties, so the one you pick might depend on the other flavors within the dish. If you're making a classic pasta with red sauce, the Garlic & Fine Herbs Boursin is a great choice because those herbs will pair nicely with marinara. Other options, such as the Shallot & Chive or the Caramelized Onion & Herbs will work well, too, if you plan to incorporate complementary ingredients like fresh chives or caramelized onions into your dish. No matter which flavor you work with, there are other things you can do to bring out an even better taste.

The easiest way to combine the Boursin and marinara is to bring the Boursin to room temperature (just leave it on the counter for around 30 minutes), and heat the marinara in the meantime. Once the marinara is hot, whisk in the Boursin. Any time you cook with dairy and add it to a hot soup or sauce, there's a chance it could curdle under the high heat, so bringing the Boursin to room temperature instead of using it cold right from the fridge will help mitigate this risk.

Marinara and Boursin are all you need for a tasty, creamy sauce, but you can always add in a few other ingredients to make the sauce even more flavorful. To avoid any chopping or dicing, add a little garlic powder and black pepper to the sauce, along with some more dried herbs like oregano and basil if you want the herb flavors to show through as much as possible. If you don't mind a little extra elbow grease, saute some minced garlic in olive oil in a pan before adding the marinara, or sprinkle a little lemon zest to bring out some brightness between the acidic tomatoes and rich cheese.