Need some red sauce help

[Jeekinz]

So anyone care to share a recipe for their Sunday sauce?

I used to make thick and hearty ragus, now I have more of "less is more" frame of mind. My sauce is very simple, a basic marinara, sometimes I may even leave out an ingredient.

Olive Oil
Fresh Basil
Chopped Onion
Minced Garlic
Tomato Paste (optional)
White Wine or Red Wine (whatever I'm drinking)
Canned Cento Brand San Marzano, sometimes I chop whole peeled tomatoes myself or used chopped.
Red Pepper Flakes (optional)


On medium heat, add about 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan along with a bunch of fresh basil. You don't want to fry the basil, just perfume the oil. After 3-4 minutes, remove the basil with a slotted spoon. Add the onion and begin to sweat. Once the onion is done, add the garlic (and tomato paste if used) and gently cook off the rawness. Deglaze with wine, reduce, add the tomatoes and a little tap water. I usually use some water from rinsing out the can. Cover and simmer at most for 20 minutes, then uncover and reduce to the thickness you like. Using authentic San Marzano tomatoes you don't have to cook the bejesus out of it.

Finish with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

You can easily add cooked ground beef, sausage or other veggies to that. I make it in a large saute pan so I can add the pasta right from the pot next to it, and use some of the pasta water in the sauce.

 

[Dom1183]

Minced Garlic

Have you ever tried adding in roasted garlic instead of sauteing raw garlic?
I've just started doing this recently and I find that the garlic is sweeter and less pungent in the sauce. I add it in when I'm about to simmer the sauce for as long as I can. Try it out. If you really love that strong garlic taste, you better roast plenty as you won't taste the strong garlic taste as when sauteing.

Also, authentic SM tomatos is all I use in my sauce but ofter wonder if the difference is really worth the extra $$. My aunt never used expensive canned tomatoes and her sauce is as good as mine if not better.
My can of SM = $3.99
Her can = $0.99

 

[GotGarlic]

Good idea, Dom. Maybe I could have made my own paste of sorts using the stick blender or food processor out of some canned whole tomatoes. I wouldn't have wanted to use it directly in the sauce or I would have lost my chunky ingredients, as in emulsified them.

Just to clarify, they would have been pureed, not emulsified.

I usually make a simple marinara sauce, like Jeeks, or doctor up a large can of crushed tomatoes with fresh onions, garlic, peppers and ground beef or sausage, along with oregano and basil from the garden. Luckily, oregano is year-round here, and I have cubes of basil in the freezer that equal probably a couple tbsp. of fresh basil. If I'm out of fresh basil, I use pesto.

 

[jennyema]

Good idea, Dom. Maybe I could have made my own paste of sorts using the stick blender or food processor out of some canned whole tomatoes. I wouldn't have wanted to use it directly in the sauce or I would have lost my chunky ingredients, as in emulsified them.

You need to cook down tomatoes to make paste. It's quite a bit of work. It's not enough to use a blender.

Emulsify = to combine oil and water in a suspension

 

[Jeekinz]

Have you ever tried adding in roasted garlic instead of sauteing raw garlic?
I've just started doing this recently and I find that the garlic is sweeter and less pungent in the sauce. I add it in when I'm about to simmer the sauce for as long as I can. Try it out. If you really love that strong garlic taste, you better roast plenty as you won't taste the strong garlic taste as when sauteing.

Also, authentic SM tomatos is all I use in my sauce but ofter wonder if the difference is really worth the extra $$. My aunt never used expensive canned tomatoes and her sauce is as good as mine if not better.
My can of SM = $3.99
Her can = $0.99

I'm not really a garlic fan, but I like the hint of it in certain foods. I do roast garlic for a couple things, but not often. When I add the garlic to the pan I keep it in one spot and add a little oil to it. Saute just for a minute or two and it will take the "edge" off.

I did some research on San Marzanos a while back. If you really load your sauce with other ingredients, you won't taste the difference in an authentic San Marzano. I prefer a cleaner taste to my sauces so I use then exclusively.

 

[CharlieD]

Interestingly, I just now found this thread.
I was making the sauce yesterday and I had exactly the opposite problem. I only had the tomato paste, I basically remember my soviet army days when the closest thing to vegetable we had was in fact tomato paste and we used to make tomato juice out of it. So I told my self that it would work for the sauce too, and it worked indeed. My wife and kids loved it.

 

[Dom1183]

Now thats' being resourceful !
It's interesting how people are different.
If all I had was a can of tomato paste, I wouldn't make sauce today.

 

[pacanis]

You need to cook down tomatoes to make paste. It's quite a bit of work. It's not enough to use a blender.

Emulsify = to combine oil and water in a suspension

Thanks for the info. I guess I was using emulsify incorrectly because I've seen stick blenders referred to as emulsion blenders. Hmmm, or is that immersion....

Anyway. Pretty cool, Charlie. Just the opposite ike you said.

And to clarify again, for anyone picking up the end of this thread, the only reason I wanted/needed the paste was because I was using a twenty minute pressure cooker sauce recipe. I don't use tomato paste for my stovetop sauce, which I've been getting better and better at, BTW . I use whatever is on sale BTW, as long as it's a name brand. I add a lot of this and that and after reading the above post, maybe the San Marzano's would be a wasted effort after all.
What I have been trying to dial in is using crushed vs diced. And one brand of crushed I just used is basically another brand's sauce or puree...

 

[Dom1183]

Well there's only one way to settle the SM tomato sauce problem.
One would have to make two exact tomato sauces with the same quantity of ingredients made with SM tomatoes and the other with a cheaper brand.
The sauce would have to be made very simple with no meat or overpowering spices.
I think I'll give that try one day and share my results. I'll give 5 people, who I believe have a solid palate, a blind taste test.

 

[CharlieD]

Now thats' being resourceful !
It's interesting how people are different.
If all I had was a can of tomato paste, I wouldn't make sauce today.

That is why I love cooking and hate baking. In cooking you can always improvise. I added few things to it and it came out great.

 

[Jeekinz]

I don't use tomato paste for my stovetop sauce,

There's no reason why you can't.

I use tomato paste primarily as a sauce "enhancer". It adds a certain flavor and depth to a sauce. I don't look at it as a thinkener at all, that's what I use reduction for.

 

[pacanis]

No, there isn't....

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

It was runny. Good, but runny.
I guess I did need that paste.

I know this is late, but will help in the future. The pressure cooker is useful for breaking down the various ingredients, that is, it makes them softer, faster, due to the increased pressure and heat. You can achieve the same thing, albeit with more pans. Cook the tomato sauce in a shallow, wide pan over medium heat to reduce the water content. While the sauce is reducing, saute' the veggies in a seperate pan over medium high heat until most of the liquid is evaporated, taking care not to scorch the veggies. While these two pans are working, brown the meat in still another pan. Add the garlic and other seasonings to the sauce. Add the meat and veggies to the sauce. Continue cooking the sauce while firing up a suitable pot of water for the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, correct the seasonings in the sauce. They must have at least 10 minutes cooking time before the herbs will have released sufficient flavor into the sauce. So check the sauce again just after the pasta is done and add whatever seasonings are called for. Drain the pasta and cover. It will still be good by the time the sauce is right.

The reason this will give you a 30 minute pasta dish is that the watery ingredients, i.e. sauce, meat, veggies, are all given broad surfaces to cook in, providing a large evaporative area. They give up their moisture before being combined. Everything is done to your liking before the sauce is combined.

For an easier way to do this, prepare the sauce the night before you are going to have the dinner. Then, just heat and eat it when the pasta is freshly cooked.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

There's no reason why you can't.

I use tomato paste primarily as a sauce "enhancer". It adds a certain flavor and depth to a sauce. I don't look at it as a thinkener at all, that's what I use reduction for.

It seems strange, as when you look at the ingredient list of tomato sauce, it usually says tomato paste and water. And yet, when I use tomato paste in addition to the sauce, it gives it a slightly sweeter, richer flavor than does the sauce alone. The diced and fresh tomato brighten the flavor so that I get layers of flavor in the sauce. The veggies also brighten the flavors as they are always fresh and are picked to compliment the sauce. So yes, I add tomato paste to my stove-top sauce as well.

Seeeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

That is why I love cooking and hate baking. In cooking you can always improvise. I added few things to it and it came out great.

Who says you can't improvise when baking? I do it all the time.
I have been challenged of late to amke a bread incorporating meat. But those thoughts and ideas are for another thread in another time. I won't hijack this thread.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North