Olive Garden’s Five Cheese Marinara Sauce is one of those pasta dishes you won’t soon forget! This Five Cheese Marinara recipe originates from Olive Garden’s Five Cheese Ziti al Forno, which means baked ziti pasta. The sauce has become widely popular, so much so that the famous Olive Garden restaurant has even created a separate menu for pairing the sauce with your favorite pasta! So we have followed suit and have made the best cheese marinara sauce recipe for you to try in this post.
The homemade sauces including Five Cheese Marinara blended with Fontina cheese and other secret ingredients will make your mouth water and also easy to make at home.
This cheesy marinara pasta sauce is a crowd favorite along with Olive Garden’s meatballs, which you can also add to this recipe. Let’s make the best homemade pasta sauce!
Tips For Making Five Cheese Marinara Sauce
Before you start making Five-Cheese Marinara Sauce, here are some tips that will enhance this wonderful dish:
- Add Crushed Tomatoes: This will give your marinara sauce extra sweetness, spiciness and thick texture. If you want to add juicy chunks of old fashioned tomatoes, you can also add them in chunks.
- Use Cheese Substitutes: If you don’t have whole cheese available, here’s a quick guide you can read below to learn what you can use as a substitute for the 5 types of cheese.
- Add Meat: You can add your favorite meat if you want. Adding ground beef, seafood, or chicken strips will definitely make this marinara pasta so delicious.
Cheese Substitutes For Each Cheese
Five cheese substitutes for each cheese are listed below:
- Ricotta: This cheese can be replaced with small curd cheese. Although it is slightly thinner than ricotta, they taste almost the same. Otherwise, you can also try cream cheese, which has a similar taste but is creamier than ricotta.
- Asiago: This cheese has a strong flavor and a nutty and yeasty aroma. You can replace this cheese with Pecorino. Pecorino is also another good choice, especially if you’re using it to cook with pasta.
- Mozzarella: This cheese is soft with a mild milky flavor. You can replace this cheese with Havarti. It has a fibrous texture and mild flavor.
- Parmesan: You can easily replace this cheese with Grana Padano. It has a nutty and fruity flavor similar to Parmesan cheese.
- Fontina: This cheese is a versatile flavored cheese so it is easy to find its substitute. You can easily replace this cheese with Gruyere. It has a rich nutty aroma like Fontina.
Five Cheese Marinara Sauce Recipe (Olive Garden Copycat)
Description
This Five Cheese Marinara is so simple to make, yet so delicious and satisfying, and packed with cheese and delicious flavors. To make this Olive Garden Five Cheese Marinara Sauce recipe you all need a hefty dose of marinara, herbs, and a ton of cheese that will tantalize your taste buds. Serve it over your favorite pasta, or you can serve it over baked potatoes or your favorite rice!
Ingredients
Instructions
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First, gather the ingredients, and necessary tools like a pan or skillet, spoon, spatula, etc.
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Heat the olive oil in a large pan, then sauté the onion until soft.
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Add in the garlic and season with salt, pepper and oregano. Cook until fragrant.
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Pour in marinara and alfredo sauce and mix. Cook the mixture on low flame for 10 minutes.
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Add in all the cheeses and mix well until it melts.
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Add in the pasta into the sauce and mix until the pasta is completely coated with the sauce.
Keep in mind that before adding pasta, boil it in normal water for 5 minutes. -
Serve the pasta with Parmesan on top!
Serving Size 100g
Servings 8
- Amount Per Serving
- Calories 125kcal
- Calories from Fat 20kcal
- % Daily Value *
- Total Fat 38g59%
- Saturated Fat 18g90%
- Trans Fat 20g
- Cholesterol 150mg50%
- Sodium 2048mg86%
- Potassium 1024mg30%
- Total Carbohydrate 85g29%
- Dietary Fiber 4g16%
- Sugars 14g
- Protein 32g64%
- Vitamin A 390 IU
- Vitamin C 20 mg
- Calcium 350 mg
- Iron 7 mg
* Recipe Disclaimer
Note
You can make this Five-Cheese Marinara with any 3 or 4 cheeses of your choice from the recipe. This can make it more convenient and cost-effective.
Expert Tips
- If you want this meal to resemble baked ziti, add noodles to a baking dish (9x9) and top with cheesy marinara.
- For more cost-effective, you can use the Italian cheese blend, found in the shredded cheese section of most grocery stores.
- You can use baked potatoes instead of noodles as the base for this sauce.
- For spiciness you can add crushed red pepper as per your taste.
Storage
You can store the cooked marinara sauce separately from the noodles in an airtight container for 3-4 days. Reheat the portion of sauce you want to eat.
Great Dish!