Red Wine in Spaghetti/tomato Sauce?

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wine without "h".
PS the bloody Italians you are referring to, prefer drinking wine or using it for meat dishes,for instance,for risotto ( risotto with mushrooms requires white wine) and in many other recipies but NOT IN SPAGHETTI SAUCES.
No matter at all... if you like keep on pouring wine in spaghetti sauces.

Wow, now I need a glass of wine. Didn't know you would get riled up but that's the way it is on this side of the ocean. I for one, will continue to use wine and I'm sure so will several others who have responded to wine questions in their spaghetti sauce in the past. And isn't the term "bloody" a British term? ;)

As a full blooded Italian, both parents having been born just outside of Milan, and used wine in their sauce, I am insulted. I'm taking my wine, my pasta sauce and my appetite and going home.
Bon Appetito!!
 
I am glad to hear that your tomatoes are good,however I use my own tomato sauce and trust me,it is really tasty,the right market as you mention,sell canned tomatoes of course but my homemade sauce is really special,trust me.
I suppose you are not trying to be offensive,I wouldn't care anyway...
I also assert that adding whine in a spaghetti sauce is really disgusting,neither Italian chef,nor common people would eat this,trust me.


I prefer my homemade sauce too. Which I sometimes make with good quality canned tomatoes. Like others have said, canned tomatoes are often better than fresh ones here.

And, believe it or not, adding wine to tomato sauce is a very traditional Italian technique. It's far from disgusting. It adds taste, but, more importantly, the alcohol releases additional flavor components in the tomatoes than are neither water or oil soluable.

Chefs and home cooks all over Italy and all over the world routinely add wine (usually red) to their tomato-based sauces. It makes a better sauce. Plain and simple.
 
My family has different recipes,my father is from Naples ,he perfectly cooks and I can assure no one in Naples adds wine in pasta sauce,believe it or not.
I am not vexed at all,however I perceive that you prefer your own recipes,never mind .. I keep on cooking my family recipies that are really tasty.
 
while I am not an authentic italian, I live in Rome for more than 5 and half years. I use red wine in many of my tomato based pasta sauce and I received no protests whatsoever. and it does give a nice depth to the flavour. In many traditional recipes (although there are endless variety) white wine is used for Bolognese sauce.

About tomatoes, yes, it IS ideal to use a ripe fresh tomatoes in season, but during the winter months they are not of the same quality, much poorer in flavour and texture even they cost 3 times as much than in season. So I do tend to find more reasonable to use tinned ones when tomatoes are out of season.
 
I saw a show on the food channel once, where instead of boiling the pasta in water, he boiled it in red wine. I dont remember what sauce he put on it afterwards, but sure seems like a lot of wine to use ..
 
I have mentioned in another post. I DO use red wine in my tomato sauce. I use RED
Taylor Port. Aria
 
I usually put a half glass of whatever red wine I have in the liquer cupboard. And you all know what happend to the other half!:LOL:
 
I do not put wine in my sauce (my family calls it "gravy") but am not opposed to trying it, why not, right? I certainly DO drink it while cooking though - next time I'll try a splash -
 
perhaps some of those who didn't like the wine in their sauces could be that they didn't give enough time to shimmer the sauce in order to let the alcohol in the wine evaporate and for the flavour to properly blend in. Add the wine when the onions etc. are sufficiently sautèed with other dried herbs (if you use fresh leaves add them just a few minutes before the finish to preserve the aroma) and let it shimmer slowly for half an hour or more.
 
perhaps some of those who didn't like the wine in their sauces could be that they didn't give enough time to shimmer the sauce in order to let the alcohol in the wine evaporate and for the flavour to properly blend in. Add the wine when the onions etc. are sufficiently sautèed with other dried herbs (if you use fresh leaves add them just a few minutes before the finish to preserve the aroma) and let it shimmer slowly for half an hour or more.

Shimmer? Okay, put the bottle away. :LOL:
 
I like to drink this very sweet red wine, and that is what I use in my meat sauce. Kind of kills two birds with one stone. Because it is sweet I do not have to add sugar to kill acidity, but that's just me. You see to each it's own. I hate dry wine. Can't stand it.
Good idea Charlie, a nice sweet wine is needed for this dish, even a Tawny Port is OK. Acid free Tomatoes are used mostly in the traditional dish such as Romas, using just ordinary run of the mill fruit does not net the same result.
 
FWIW, I just consulted my copy of The Silver Spoon, supposedly Italy's best selling cookbook. To my surprise, none of the red pasta sauce recipes--including the Bolognese--called for alcohol except for the seafood sauce. I'm not sure my Bolognese would be quite as good without the wine.
 
well my all family doesn't and my mum also doesn't like,in my family we have different recipes,maybe.. it's the first time I hear about pouring wine in pasta sauce..it sounds very odd to me... sorry about that.
 
Everyone has different tastes/recipes Arwen. I know that in Canada there are many regional differences in cooking. Perhaps this is the case in Italy as well?

Clearly everyone is passionate about this subject. Yikes.
 
Good idea Charlie, a nice sweet wine is needed for this dish, even a Tawny Port is OK. Acid free Tomatoes are used mostly in the traditional dish such as Romas, using just ordinary run of the mill fruit does not net the same result.
You are correct, but I do not always have Roma tomatoes on hand, and had to deal with what I got.
 
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