Secret ingredient for great tomato sauce
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Anonymous
| brown sugar |
Anonymous
| My Italian mother's recipe includes the red wine vinegar and sugar suggested here. She also adds a small amount of red pepper flakes |
Anonymous
| So much butter in hazan's recipe. Growing up with a mother born in italy, thete are so many ways to make a great sauce without all that added fat. But to each his own of course. |
Anonymous
| Anchovy paste |
Anonymous
noooooooo don't secretly add fish to stuff. |
Anonymous
| Nonna's love |
Anonymous
| I add an anchovy and let it dissolve into nothing. People love my sauce. Never guess it has an anchovy in it. |
Anonymous
Oh go away. That's like saying your secret ingredient is a jar of Ragu. |
Anonymous
|
Red wine, rind of the parmagiana, splash of olive oil
I think the anchovy paste is also a legitimate choice but I think that’s more of a puttanesca. I’ve done carrots but I think the red wine sugars are much nicer. I can only imagine adding sugar in some sort of zombie apocolypse situation where i could not get wine, carrots or decent tomatos, but I also recognize that others differ on that point. |
Anonymous
I haven't read through the responses but yeah this is what every Italian restaurant (at least in America) does. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
| Anchovy paste |
Anonymous
NP-its just a type of salt with more umami that tastes amazing-why is that akin to a processed product that doesn't taste that great? |
Anonymous
| I always knew I was supposed to cook the sauce with carrots (actually a full mirepoix with onion and celery), but I never knew it was because of the sugar! I thought it was just to enhance the flavor. I also use olive oil and tomato paste in the base. Honestly, the tomatoes themselves are kind of superfluous at that point, especially since most grocery store tomatoes have no flavor whatsoever. And then don't be afraid to season the sauce. "Some" basil and "a little" salt and pepper just sounds so bland! I use massive amounts of basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, and a handful of other herbs in my sauce. A little sauce then goes a long way, so that it's more like a light dressing for the noodles rather than a soup that the spaghetti swims in. |
Anonymous
Because it's a processed product. We all know this. We can get umami flavor using real food choices. |