Homemade Pasta Sauce help..

[Susan]

My mum often made vegetarian pasta sauce for us with celery, carrots and parsley root roasted in leek + tomato sauce. It really tastes great!

[malkin]

And if a bit of sauce gets a bit stuck on the bottom of the pan, stir it back in. That's my secret. A little bit of caramelized stuff works the same as a little sugar.

[crazycanuck]

Yum Yum...! I hit the jackpot last week when making some pasta sauce but now need some more info.

I chopped up some tomatoes, added a few herbs n spices, 300ml water & then let it simmer on the stove...I then added some tomato paste & chicken...ooo..mmmm....

So, my question is: How do i thicken the sauce without the tomato paste? Cornstarch???

Ta!
C

[OakLeaf]

... cook it longer. Tomato paste is just tomatoes strained and cooked a long, long time. When I sauce tomatoes for the freezer it usually takes about three hours to reduce the volume by half.

Starting with paste tomatoes helps (lower moisture, Roma type varieties).

Maybe you could do it in a slow cooker with the lid off? I don't know if it's hot enough in those things to stick.

[spokewench]

Yum Yum...! I hit the jackpot last week when making some pasta sauce but now need some more info.

I chopped up some tomatoes, added a few herbs n spices, 300ml water & then let it simmer on the stove...I then added some tomato paste & chicken...ooo..mmmm....

So, my question is: How do i thicken the sauce without the tomato paste? Cornstarch???

ta!
C

[/B]I see nothing wrong with Tomato Paste, but don't add any water, and simmer longer, i.e. let it cook down more with the lid off

[badger]

I think some of you might be horrified, but ketchup has always been a quick fix for too-tart or bland sauce for me. It works as a sweetner and a thickener (all you foodies please don't hate me, I'm not Italian in any way shape or form)

[alpinerabbit]

Fry some finely chopped celery (root, celeriac) along with the onions and garlic - until all forms a light-brown layer on the bottom of the pan. deglaze with red wine or stock. Lovely round-off for the taste.
A half stock cube goes into mine at all times.
Sugar, too, &try a pinch of cinnamon!

[OakLeaf]

Also, if what you're going for is wanting to avoid tomato paste in cans, Bionaturae has it in jars - it's imported from Italy into the USA, so I expect you can get that brand in Australia as well.

[smilingcat]

What i'm trying to do is not add anything from a can or jar to make my pasta sauce...

What'll happen if i place the tomatoes n some olive oil in a pan & let it simmer then put it in a blender..would that make any sense? Or the other way round?


You've given me tooooooo many options.......ooooooooo

Read the recipe and been thinking about why your sauce turned orange. The olive oil and other ingredients emulsified with lots of air. Thus the orange colour rather than red.

Red capsicum is Aussie and English name for red bell pepper. The recipe sounds interesting but I think I would skip the water if you are using the whole roma tomato instead of just the "meat". I think that is what the ingredient really meant.

Yes you could cook down the tomato first in a skillet to remove excess water. Add about a table spoon of red wine per tomato. The alcohol helps to release the flavor in the tomato so that you can taste it. If you are using a paste tomato you should skip the reduction in the skillet as it does NOT have enough juice.

Roasting the tomato before you puree would also make this sauce more richer.
Adding a half tsp of sugar helps to control the acid taste of the sauce. Full teaspoon is also fine. You want to use it sparingly so as not to sweeten the sauce.

Adding of hot chilli pepper does similar thing as sugar in terms of livening up the taste of the sauce.

If you want to add the "umai" flavor, add between 1 tsp and 2 tsp of anchovy paste. Trust me on this.

I think the roasted red pepper sauce is wonderful!

This is very similar to Bobby Flays' roasted bell pepper sauce (not for use with pasta). Good for chicken...

Personally, I think I would skip black pepper as it would detract from a beautiful red sauce. Last thing I want to see is black specks. Also black pepper isn't the right taste for this sauce. It should be hot chilli pepper.

I think I would use this sauce other than for pasta.

good eats!

[alpinerabbit]

I second the anchovies, trick a friend told me, haven't tried but it works in other stuff...