for my sauce, i sautee whole cloves of garlic and onions in olive oil to start. i then add a can of tomato puree and i dice a few tomatos and add those. i usually fill the can up with water and swish it around and then add that to the pot because it stretches the sauce a bit more. i spice it up with a variety of italian herbs.
if i'm cooking for kids and i need to make a sweet sauce and fast i'll use a can of paste, but i don't like using it on a regular basis. a nice all day "sunday" sauce is the best.
if i have some, i put a few bones in there for flavor. if i'm cooking for others, i fry up some meatballs sausage in a separate pan and add them to the sauce. (btw if someone wants me to cook for them i recently found the best meatball recipe but i don't eat beef) let it simmer on low for a few hours and it thickens up real nice. =P mmm mmm
Pfft...kids and their sweet sauce.
And you are the first person I've ever heard to use bones for flavor in tomato sauce. That's interesting.
I put a lot of other things in it, but I can't tell all of my secrets. ;)
i start out like forreste but i shred carrots in it to break up the acidicy and sometimes add pepperoni slices for flavor
ohhh interesting variations. i also like olives in my sauce sometimes.
hmm green or black? sometimes i dice up green peppers and throw them in too. andrew really likes that.
i perfer black and i love green peppers in my sauce too. i like having little extras like that.
Is it really worth all that effort to make your own sauce?
I just heat up a jar of Ragu, the onion and herb one, and once my sausage is cooked I drop it in the sauce for a little and let it simmer.
If it's worth it I'll try it out. After all I have a brand new garlic press I haven't used yet.
definitely much better homemade. and it's not that much work really. you just throw everything in and let it cook.
we've got a garlic press here! i love it! my breath stinks!
I picked up that and a bunch of other stuff at the last Pampered Chef party I was at. I'm addicted to that stuff!
i've got the same one. it even presses the skin off. i was like, "whoaaa, pampered chef has tastey lil nuggets of alien technology."
i got one and i dont know why-i never use it.
i also find that a lot of onion give the sauce to much of an acidic taste that even the carrots can't help. i usually use onion powder instead. and sometimes instead of the puree i like to use crushed tomatos. gives it more of that chunky texture.
I'm not one for chunks of tomato in my sauce. Maybe I'll give it a try next week. Cooking is so much fun when you know what your doing and it comes out right.
it's not chunky like if you put tomatos in, it just makes it more textured instead of very smooth. guess it all depends on what you like but it really doesn't change the taste. also be careful of what brand you use for the base-that can make a big difference.
Hunts no good? What about Carnation? What do you reccomend?
I usually use Carnation or another one w/ a red label and "Red" in the name but i can't remember the rest of it. i think hunt's was the one i didn't like. it was really sweet and watery and weird. but i think i like carnation the best
Cool beans, thanks. I know the RED sauce your talking about too but the name escapes me.
i like the redpak diced with the spices in it. it's pretty good.
REDPAK! that's the name. thanks forreste
that's the exact way i do it too. i have yet to try grinding fresh tomatos up for sauce. my mom does it sometimes, and it def. makes it amazing.
I peel the skin off my tomatoes by scoring and flashing them, then squish them with my hands. Wear an apron, that's my only caution.
okay, i'm italian, so OBVIOUSLY a good cook, haha ;-) but i'm not a chef (by profession) so i'm not down w/ the lingo. by scoring, you mean putting a slit in the skin? and flashing you mean dipping them quick in hot water? thats the only thing that i came up with.
You're totally right. Pull off the stems, slice the skin slightly twice all around (forming quarters) then drop them in boiling water for about 15 seconds. The skin peels right off. I found that when I put them in with the skin on, although the color is darker, the sauce is more bitter. I like it on the lighter side.
interesting! i think i will try it tonight. i have no plans...so i'll cook!
know what i love about making a big pot of sauce? it's super versitle..plus you can make a large amount and it freezes well.
I love it when I've got nothing to do but cook. Make some meatballs too!
okay, i am really upset. i spent over 3 hours in the kitchen yesterday between making the sauce and cleaning everything up. and you know what? the sauce came out terrible. it didnt taste BAD, it just didnt taste GOOD. i have no idea what i could have done. i made my sauce how i normally make it...and it comes out good...i just normally used crushed canned tomatos. the only things i could think of that i did wrong are...
1. maybe i used the wrong tomatos? what kind do you use diana?
2. i didnt take the seeds out of the tomatos...
i just used my food processor to chop it all up. (i did remove the skins) maybe the tomatos werent ripe enough. i just dont know...but i'm quite upset.
I usually use beefsteak tomatoes. I never remove the seeds. It's possible that you had a tomato that was not ripe enough or that was sour; sometimes you can't tell a sour tomato until you actually taste it. Otherwise, is it possible you burned your garlic?
no, i didnt burn the garlic. i used roma tomatos...i do think they could have been riper...they werent green, but they werent a vibrant red. i will try it again..but it did make a mess. haha it was fun doing it though.
I'm sorry it didn't work for you! Do you typically add sugar to your sauce? It's possible that since you weren't using canned tomatoes, with all the sugar they have, you weren't getting any sweetness, which may have been causing the poor taste. I've always added sugar just as a preference, but it might make a difference. Also, I've always used a crazy amount of garlic. For 1 batch (about 10 large tomatoes), I use 2 full heads of garlic. Did your sauce have a less-spicy flavor? Roma tomatoes actually have the fewest seeds and juice of any tomato.
i did add some sugar, I dont typically. But when things were going down hill, i was trying anything. I used more of other seasoning as well... fresh basil and parsley. I even added a carrot to try to get rid of some of the tartness. But it does seem like maybe i should have used more garlic. For a pot of sauce w/ canned tomatos i usually use about 6 large cloves and it comes out good. So i did the same this time....next time i'll try it your way.
I hope it works better for you next time. :)
Props to Frest on the stockbone suggestion. I threw in a few beef stockbones with a batch of sauce I made yesterday. It gave an incredible round yet tangy flavor - I love it! A very pizziaola flavor. Great tip!