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cooking Spaghetti Sauce

Voodoo 6

Voodoo 6

So, I found myself staring at all the spaghetti sauces in the local market, and the prices ranged from $3.29 to about $9.00. Was wondering what ingredients make a sauce truly incredible. Example: the base for green Chile stew is green Chile, potatoes, and meat. In the Spaghetti realm, there is tomatoes, and I don't know what else. I had heard ingredients like fennel, cocoa, and sugar, and vinegar are being used to make a sauce. Those sound really weird except fennel.

You all ever had a spaghetti sauce that blew you away?

Cheers!
 
Here's my base recipe for sauce. I only make it once a year and freeze bags to use through the year. It's one the best sauces I've ever had. I'm usually not a fan of red sauce.

Ingredients:
4 big ass cans of peeled San Marzano tomatoes
4 cans of tomato sauce
3 cans of tomato paste
1 zucchini minced
1 Sweet onion minced
10 cloves garlic chopped
3 shallots chopped
Mushrooms of your choice sliced
4 bay leaves
3t oregano
½ tsp fennel
2 t basil
1.5 t black pepper
1.5 t kosher salt
1.5 T smoked paprika
3 t honey
1.25 cup sugar
1 cup red wine
½ cup brown sugar
Crush red pepper to taste

Meat grind options: Ribeye, NY strip, ground pork, bacon, pancetta, Italian sausage
 
Very cool, so lets say you could only use 8 ingredients to make a sauce, what would you use?

From what I am reading, the tomato ( San Marzanos Italy Vesuvius seems to reign) prep and cooking seems to be the gateway to an awesome sauce, whether roasted, peeled, steamed etc??
 
Voodoo 6 said:
From what I am reading, the tomato ( San Marzanos Italy Vesuvius seems to reign) prep and cooking seems to be the gateway to an awesome sauce, whether roasted, peeled, steamed etc??
Click to expand...

San Marzano 🧑‍🍳 👍

I usually prepare several L of tomato sauce. Remove seeds, bring tomato to a soft, rolling boil for 20-30 min, pass through food mill (passe-vite). I store 1L packages in the freezer.

A video, but without subtitles (just pay attention to what they're doing):

 
Ah so it's important to separate the seed from the fruit, slow roast in olive oil (perhaps a generous amount) and then juice it?? So that becomes the base of the sauce and then you can start adding other ingredients and spices?

That is pretty interesting, wonder if the same process can be applied to green Chile after roasting. Some of the green Chile here has remnants of the skin and seeds in most of the sauces. Wonder if the straining process is the key to making a better sauce in both pasta and green Chile sauces?
 
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Voodoo 6 said:
Ah so it's important to separate the seed from the fruit, slow roast in olive oil (perhaps a generous amount) and then juice it?? So that becomes the base of the sauce and then you can start adding other ingredients and spices?
Click to expand...

"Important" is a big word... You can toss in the whole tomato as well, you won't die :) But the taste will be different, and in my personal opinion, the taste of the sauce is improved by discarding the seeds.

This is the recipe for a basic passata that can be stored for several months and used when necessary. Take a bottle of sauce and add ingredients/spices as desired.
 
Okie dokie. Herewith the real deal Bolognese Ragu. No effing amounts cos everyone has their own taste. Just don't fuck with the ingredients. This is it.

Plum tomatoes (canned fresh whatever)
Tomato paste
Passata
Garlic
Finely chopped or pureed onion, celery and carrots
Salt
Pepper
Nutmeg
Full cream milk
White wine
Meat: a mix of minced/finely chopped (better) beef, pork. Or just 80:20 beef. You must have fat.
Butter for frying/browning. Please please no EVOO - that's for dressing food not cooking.

If added enough carrots you won't have to add sugar. But taste. Often. You will know if you need to add sugar.

I don't think I have to dictate cooking process. Except cook for at least three hours

NO HERBS. Fuckit no oregano, basil. parsley etc. Not even pepperoncini.

This is proper.

Serve with buttered tagliatelle or pappardelle.
 
Okay if I was going to fuck with ingredients I would add super fatty pancetta and anchovies.
You get the idea. Lotsa fat (flavour carrier) and umami
 
Right on Rob, had to look up umami, but MSG does seem to make everything taste better, Ahayastani also posted the passata above.

I am getting a better picture of what a proper sauce is starting to look like. What's the logic on no herbs or no olive oil?

Cheers!

​

 
Olive oil becomes indigestible when cooked. It also becomes bitter. EVOO is not meant for cooking but rather as a finishing touch or dressing or a dip.

The long cooking process cooks all the herb flavour out. That lovely smell of herbs etc that you smell when cooking? That's all the flavour dissipating into the atmosphere! Besides, herbs aren't traditionally added to ragu.
 
are you specifically asking about spaghetti?

or are you just using it as a general word for all pasta?

there are sauces that are better with specific shapes of pasta

my favourites for spaghetti are,

carbonara
puttanesca
aglio e olio usually a jazzed up version with lemon zest and anchovies
Pomodoro

there are much better pasta shapes for any Ragu /meat sauce than spaghetti .

For a lot of people it ties into childhood memories so even though objectively it isn't great, subjectively they want spaghetti Bolognese /Ragu.


My favourite pasta sauce will always be my Nonna's suga over penne rigate.

it's a dry meat sauce with very little tomato(more fat/oily than liquid) and I would say probably an acquired taste for most people are used to a saucy sauce .
 
Marinara sauce from an Italian restaurant....
restaurant quantity...


In a nonreactive stock pot (stainless)...
6 yellow onions, minced in food processor
Evoo to barely cover
Sweat down the onions

2 #10 cans tomato puree (san marzano or other good tomato)
1 can water up to first rib
1 can water up to first rib, finish to top with red wine

10 cloves garlic, smashed
10 sprigs fresh basil
Salt
Pepper

Pinch sugar if needed


Simmer until happy, happy, happy....
 
Pasta Puttanesca has a fun back story... ;)
 
Never heard of or encountered fennel in a spaghetti sauce, and as I'm sensitive to fennel I would be pretty sure.

I don't do anything really special since I'm usually going from canned tomatoes at the last minute - but definitely add any herbs at the end, as mentioned. I add a splash of worchestershire for umami, mushrooms or some of the other suggestions would do the same.

Have to try some of these long-cooking recipes :)
 
Matty Matheson on various Vice Channel shows always said to add sugar to counteract the "tinned" flavor. Most cans now-a-days are lined, not tomato on metal.

The recipe i posted was circa 1992. So maybe the sugar was for tinned tomatoes.
 
HellfireFarm said:
Never heard of or encountered fennel in a spaghetti sauce, and as I'm sensitive to fennel I would be pretty sure.

I don't do anything really special since I'm usually going from canned tomatoes at the last minute - but definitely add any herbs at the end, as mentioned. I add a splash of worchestershire for umami, mushrooms or some of the other suggestions would do the same.

Have to try some of these long-cooking recipes :)
Click to expand...
Fennel is not a common ingredient in standard spaghetti or marinara sauce. Like capers are in puttanesca.
Spaghetti, marinara, pizza sauce are all similar basic ingredients. But subtle small differences separate each one.
 
Hiya Ashen, was just asking about pasta sauces in general.

I think this is the sauce you mentioned: Nonna's Sugo:

themodernnonna.com

Authentic Italian Tomato Sauce (Sugo)

I can't think of anything better than sugo and sugo Sundays! Sugo, also known as authentic Italian tomato sauce is a staple in every Italian household. If
themodernnonna.com themodernnonna.com

Cheers!
 
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