Joy Bauer Just Used a Surprising Ingredient to Make an Easy Vinaigrette—and I'm Trying It ASAP

Here at EatingWell, salad season lasts all year long. We're already looking forward to enjoying autumnal kale and wintry Cobb salads later this year. But if you prefer to pack your salad consumption into the primo summer months, we've got a salad dressing recipe for you to put on your list.

Joy Bauer, registered dietitian and correspondent on the Today show, recently took to Instagram to share one of her easiest pantry vinaigrettes, and we're pretty psyched to try it out for ourselves. This simple Tomato Basil Vinaigrette has just four ingredients: jarred marinara sauce, red-wine vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil and dried basil.

In her instructional video, Bauer uses the dregs of an opened jar of pasta sauce from her refrigerator, which is exactly what we love about this recipe. Like TikTok's favorite mustard jar dressing, this vinaigrette adds fun flavor to a bowl of veggies and helps you cut down on waste in the kitchen. (If you're wondering which store-bought marinara sauces are the best to have on hand, here's our dietitian-approved rundown.) While Bauer mixes up her dressing in a bowl on the counter, you could easily toss the three other ingredients into the sauce jar directly.

To mimic Bauer's ways, combine 1/2 cup marinara with 1/4 cup red-wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon dried basil. Stir it up or shake it in a closed jar until the dressing's texture is homogenized. If you're using a chunkier sauce or just prefer a very well-combined vinaigrette, you could give the ingredients a few blitzes in a blender to achieve that perfect texture.

Bauer drizzles her vinaigrette over a simple bowl of what looks like grape tomatoes, sweet peppers and chopped cucumber. You could add yours to any ol' clean-out-the-fridge salad, or pour it over servings of a fun dinner salad that can feed the whole family, like our High-Protein Grilled Chicken Salad or Chopped Power Salad with Chicken. You could even use it as a marinade—as we do with some of our favorite vinaigrettes—for grilled veggies or chicken.

Of course, this vinaigrette is also open to some customization based on what you have in your kitchen. Add in different fresh or dried herbs that you have on hand for a boost of flavor, or sprinkle in salt and pepper to taste. And if you love the marinara flavor in this dressing, you could even build your whole salad around it. Just opt for salad ingredients that you love to include in your pasta or on pizza, like spinach, black olives, grilled chicken or a big dose of Parmesan cheese.

However you serve up this simple dressing, you'll know it's going to pack some flavor into every saucy bite.