For Easier Baked Ziti, Soak, Don't Boil Your Pasta | The Food Lab

For Easier Baked Ziti, Soak, Don't Boil Your Pasta | The Food Lab

Nys Aqyla    9/10/2022   

Here's another exclusive excerpt from my book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, which is currently a New York Times bestseller. OH!

I hope you enjoyed the excerpt (and macaroni and cheese!), which comes from the chapter on ketchup, pasta, and pasta science.

Grilled Ziti is the dish I make at the annual ski retreat that my friends and I take to New England every year. There are few baked goods that are easier to make but give such amazing results, especially when it's snowing outside and you have a whole compartment of friends to feed.

Soak, do not boil

  Here's something I've always wondered: when cooking pasta, such as lasagna or ziti in the oven, why do you always cook the pasta first? Aren't you asking for trouble by cooking once, then putting in the pot and cooking again? Well, there's the first obvious part of the answer to that question: pasta needs to absorb water during cooking - a lot of water, about 80% of its own weight when whole. So, add raw pasta directly to a baked pasta dish, and it will be deliciously tender - it will also draw all the moisture out of the sauce, leaving it dry or spoiled.

Here's the problem: dry pasta is made from flour, water and, on rare occasions, eggs. It's basically made up of starch and protein, and not much else. The starch molecules are clumped into large particles that look like small water balloons. When heated in a humid environment, they continue to absorb more and more water, swell and become soft.

During this time, the proteins in the noodles begin to denature, giving more structure to the noodles (much more obvious when cooking fresh, soft egg noodles). When the stars are aligned, you can pull the pasta out of the water only if the proteins have enough structure to keep the noodles firm and supple and the starch is barely softened to perfection - soft but mouth-watering - called al dente. But who can say that these two stages, water absorption and protein denaturation, must occur at the same time? H. Alexander Talbot and Aki Kamozawa of the excellent blog Ideas in Food asked themselves this question and they found this: you don't have to do both processes at the same time. In fact, if you leave raw pasta in warm water long enough, it will absorb as much water as boiled pasta.

Here's what they had to say about it: "The drained [soaked] noodles retain their shape, and since the starch hasn't been activated, they don't stick together and can be held without adding oil." . Once we added the noodles to the brine, we cooked al dente pasta in just 60 seconds.” Really enjoyable.

To try it myself, I put some pasta in a bowl of hot tap water and let it sit, taking out a piece every 5 minutes to measure how much water it absorbed. After about 30 minutes, it has absorbed as much water as a piece of hard-boiled pasta, while remaining completely raw!

While the ability to cook your own pre-soaked pasta in just 60 seconds isn't all that exciting for a home cook (all it does is convert an 8-minute cooking process into a 30-plus 1-minute soak process). - hardly once - save), it is a very interesting application for restaurant chefs who can prepare soaked pasta to cook in a short time.

But what it means for a home cook is this: whenever you're going to cook pasta in a pot, you don't have to cook it first. All you have to do is soak the sauce while making the sauce, then combine the two and cook. Since the pasta is already hydrated, it won't lose your sauce, and the heat from the oven is more than enough to cook it while the pie is stewing. If you eat them side by side, you won't be able to tell the difference between pre-cooked pasta and dipping pasta. Think what that means for lasagna! I know at least six different common dental procedures that I would rather do than cook lasagna.

Keep the sauce simple

Red sauce is basically one of five Italian cooking “mother sauces” that I identify in my book (the others are garlic and oil, ragú, cream, and pesto). It is a necessary staple in any Western chef's pantry. Countless Italian-American restaurants rely on this sauce.

Marcella Hazan's ketchup recipe may offer the best culinary value for money you'll ever see. It's so simple, it doesn't even need a full recipe - just boil a 28-ounce can of whole-grain tomatoes with 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter and half an onion, mash the tomatoes against the side of the pan with a spoon - but your taste. rich, fresh and perfectly balanced. It's the butter that makes the difference. Unlike olive oil, butter contains natural emulsifiers that help keep the sauce creamy and nice. And the sweetness from the milk works in tandem with the sweetness of the onion while rounding out the harsher acidic notes of the tomato.

From where Marcella left off, it's not a far cry from the classic American-Italian marinara sauce, a ketchup flavored with garlic, oregano, and olive oil. Butter is always needed to smooth out the rough edges of the tomatoes, but here I want to replace half with extra virgin olive oil to add more complexity to the mixture. I make it in four batches and store it in sealed Ball jars. Bottle while hot in a sterile jar, seal tightly, and allow sauce to cool to room temperature before placing in the refrigerator. It will keep in the refrigerator for at least a month, ready to be reheated and served or incorporated into another recipe.

Now that we know how to make the basic marinara sauce and know how to soak the sauce more easily than boiling pasta for a baked casserole, it's just a short hop away and you can switch to the classic grilled ziti. The noodles are mixed with a pink mixture of ketchup, cream, and ricotta cheese, with a few eggs thrown in to create a casserole structure during cooking. I also love mixing mozzarella cubes with pasta to form supple, stretchy bags. I finished it all off with some marinara, extra mozzarella balls, and grating parmesan.

Get The Recipe

• The Food Lab's No-Boil Baked Ziti Recipe
  

The Food Lab's No-Boil Baked Ziti Recipe

The Food Lab's No-Boil Baked Ziti Recipe

Nys Aqyla    9/10/2022   

 

 why does it work?

• Soaking the pasta instead of boiling will allow the pasta to cook perfectly without using an extra pan or waiting for it to come to a boil.
   
• Mixing the base marinara sauce with cream and ricotta cheese keeps the pasta moist and flavorful.
   
• Diced mozzarella blocks form a distinct bag of melted cheese for added textural contrast.

  Grilled Ziti is the dish I make at the annual ski retreat that my friends and I take to New England every year. Few baked goods are easier to make while still producing such amazing results, especially when it's snowing outside and you have a whole bunch of friends to feed. The noodles are mixed with a pink mixture of ketchup, cream, and ricotta cheese, with a few eggs thrown in to create a casserole structure during cooking. I also love mixing mozzarella cubes with pasta to form supple, stretchy bags. I finish it all off with some marinara, add mozzarella balls and a piece of parmesan.

Formula Events

• Preparation: 25 minutes                           Serves: 6 to 8 servings
  
• Cooking: 60 minutes
  
• Rest: 40 minutes
  
• Total: 2 hours 5 minutes
  

Element

• 1 pound ziti, penne, or other thick pasta
  
• 6 cups homemade or high-quality store-bought red sauce (like Rao`s)
  
• 12 ounces high-quality or homemade whole milk ricotta cheese (see note)
  
• 3 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano, finely ground (about 1/2 cup)
  
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 cup of cream
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound whole milk mozzarella cheese, cut into coarse 1/4-inch cubes

Direction

• Place the oven rack in the center position and preheat the oven to 400°F. Place the ziti in a large bowl and cover with about 3 or 4 inches of hot salted water. Leave at room temperature for 30 minutes, stirring after the first 5 minutes so it doesn't stick. Drought drying.
   
• Pour half the marinara into a large saucepan, add the ricotta, half the Parmigiano, eggs, cream and half the parsley and basil, stir well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the soaked ziti with half of the cheese cubes and stir until well blended. Transfer to a 13x9-inch baking dish and top with remaining marinara sauce and mozzarella.
   
• Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake until cheese begins to brown, about 15 minutes longer. Remove from oven and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan, then let cool for 10 minutes. Sprinkle remaining parsley and basil on top and serve on a plate.
  

This formula appears in

• Food Lab: To Make Ziti Cooking Easier, Soak, Don't Boil Your Pasta
  

Penne alla Vodka Recipe

Penne alla Vodka Recipe

Nys Aqyla    9/09/2022   

Usually served with penne, positively magical with the evaporator, this vodka sauce is a strong tomato flavor combined with the velvety richness of heavy cream.

 

In this recipe

• Importance of vodka in Penne alla Vodka             
• Winning combination of tomatoes

why does it work?

• Using a healthy dose of ketchup gives the sauce the deep sweetness it needs, while a small can of tomato sauce adds a layer of livelier flavor.
   
• When cooking the onions and garlic very gently in the butter makes them very soft and tender, without the harsh onion flavor in the final sauce.
  

• Add vodka to the sauce when the cooking time is only a few minutes to ensure that the sauce is not too alcoholic and does not lack the flavor enhancer of the vodka.

  A staple of Italian-American red sauce restaurants across the United States since the 1980s, vodka sauce has a history of being as opaque as its intense orange color. A famous Italian actor invented it? A 70s restaurant in Bologna? A Columbia University student? Or is he from Russia? Meh, even though I love discovering the history of famous dishes, I can live with this unsolved mystery.

Importance of vodka in Penne alla Vodka

The interesting thing about vodka sauce is not who invented it, but how delicious it is. And yes, vodka is really important here. We know this, because we've done the tests. A few years ago, Kenji pondered the question of whether vodka sauce really needs vodka, and the answer is clearly yes (although sauces are just as delicious without it). In a series of tastings, Kenji found that the neutral alcohol aroma enhanced the fruity aromas of the sauce while providing warmth and a slight crunch that balanced the richness of the sauce.

He also focused on what he found to be the ideal amount of vodka - about a quarter cup per quart of sauce, simmering for about seven minutes before serving. My tests match his, and that's what this recipe calls for (to pick the right timing, vodka is added about a minute before the pasta is combined with the sauce, then everything is cooked together for a few more minutes; by the time the cheese is combined and the pasta is ready, you'll be close to the seven-minute mark).

That said, individual tastes vary, so if you want a richer sauce, you can always add a splash of vodka just before serving to accentuate the wine.

Winning combination of tomatoes

What else makes this sauce great? Well, if you look at enough vodka sauce recipes, you'll find that some of them use huge amounts of ketchup as the sole tomato ingredient in the sauce, while others choose canned tomatoes (sometimes with a few tablespoons). add tomato paste to create depth).

I tested both methods and liked aspects of each. The ketchup and vodka sauce have a great fruity consistency, which, to me, gives the sauce some of its signature flavor. But even a tube full of flour combined with a lot of cream couldn't make enough sauce for four servings, and made the flavor of the onion too overpowering. On the other hand, canned tomatoes give a fresher, more fruity tomato character, but without the depth of tomato paste; A few spoonfuls of paste is not enough to make up for this.

My solution: Use a whole tube (or can) or tomato paste, plus a small can of peeled tomatoes. Taken together, they create a sauce that is nuanced and layered, rich, deep and bright. He is a winner.

As for pasta? Most recipes call for penne, and this is an option here, but at Serious Eats, we love this sauce even more when it comes to the added tartness.

 

 

Recipe Facts :

• Cook: 65 mins            Serves: 4 servings
• Active: 40 mins
• Total: 65 mins
  

Ingredients :

•     3 tablespoons (45g) unsalted butter
•     1 medium (8-ounce; 225g) yellow onion, diced
•     3 medium cloves garlic, thinly sliced
•     Pinch red pepper flakes
•     Kosher salt
•     One 4 1/2-ounce (130g) tube concentrated tomato paste or 6-ounce (170g) can tomato paste
•     One 14 1/2-ounce (411g) can whole peeled tomatoes
•     1 cup (240ml) heavy cream
•     1 pound (450g) short tubular pasta, such as rigatoni or penne
•     1/4 cup (60ml) vodka, plus more if desired
•     2 ounces (55g) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving

Direction

In a large saucepan (3 or 4 quarts) or a small Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat. Add chopped onion, garlic and red pepper, season with a little salt and cook, stirring frequently until onion is soft but not browned, about 15 minutes; Reduce heat if necessary to avoid darkening.

Add ketchup and cook, stirring, until tomatoes are fragrant and thick, about 3 minutes. Stir the canned tomatoes with their liquid. Bring to a boil, then cook, stirring frequently, and using a spoon to mash the whole tomatoes, until the sauce has thickened slightly, about 10 minutes. 

Add cream and stir to combine. Transfer the sauce to a blender and blend until very smooth (you can run the immersion blender, but in our tests the sauce level was too low to safely splatter). Wipe the pan clean, then add the mixed sauce to the pan. Lightly season with salt.

In a saucepan of moderately salted boiling water, cook the pasta until just remaining, about 3 minutes less than specified on the package. About 1 minute before transferring the pasta to the sauce, add the vodka to the tomato sauce and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat.

Using a slotted spoon or slotted spoon, transfer the pasta directly to the pot with 1/2 cup (120 mL) of the pasta water (alternatively, reserve 2 cups of the pasta water, then pour the pasta into the colander, then then add to the sauce with 1/2 cup of water to reserve). Increase heat to high and cook, stirring constantly, until pasta is evenly coated in sauce and thickened, about 3 minutes. If the sauce is too thick before the noodles are ready, add more pasta water in increments of 1/4 cup (60 mL) as needed. [Shown here with one serving.]

Turn off the heat and stir the cheese until well combined into a smooth creamy sauce. Season with salt and add more if needed. If you can't detect the vodka, you can add a few more drops and stir before serving. The level of alcohol you want for the sauce is a matter of taste, but be careful as heavy hands will ruin the dish. Spoon of pasta

Special equipment

3 liter sauce boat or pan or 5 liter dutch oven, blender, slotted spoon or strainer or colander

Preparation and storage

The vodka sauce can be made before step 3 (mixing). Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days. To use, heat the sauce in a pan, then follow the recipe instructions from step 4.

Best Italian American Tomato Sauce Recipe

Best Italian American Tomato Sauce Recipe

Nys Aqyla    9/04/2022   

A great ketchup starts with great ingredients, simply cooks slowly and slowly until it's complex and rich.

 

In this recipe

• Best tomato to make sauce
• Essential olive oil for taste and texture
• What herbs add the most flavor to ketchup?
• How to make sweet tomato sauce
• The best way to cook ketchup (not on the stovetop)
• Finish the sauce

why does it work?

• Starting with good quality tomatoes and grinding them by hand will then yield great flavor and texture.
• The combination of butter and oil will release the fat-soluble aromatics and give the sauce a creamy texture.
• Slow cooking the sauce in the oven creates rich caramel without burning.

I hit the sauce recently. I'm talking about red sauce here. You may know it as sauce. Primarily Italian-American has opened thousands of restaurants. While its origins are certainly in Italy, the simmering ketchup served in red checkered tablecloth restaurants on the East Coast (not to mention New Jersey homes) is just as much as it is in the US.

It's not a fresh, bland pomodoro sauce. It's not the kind of sauce you mix for dinner for the week. It's not a sauce you heat up in a jar, and it's certainly not a marinara sauce you use sparingly for the perfect spaghetti al dente.

It's red sauce. Slow Cooked Italian-American Ribs designed to give you pride and taste in equal portions. It's the kind of sauce you open the window on while cooking just to make sure everyone in the neighborhood knows what you're doing. This is the kind of dipping sauce that children defend their honor in elementary school. It's the sauce you want the meatballs to swim in, your chicken bath, and the sauce you want not only mixed with your pasta, but in an amount that would make a traditionalist say. up because of suffering.

 

"My mother cooked the sauce for her for 5 hours." "Yeah? Well, my mom cooks her rice for 6 hours. "Wow, my mom cooks her rice for 7 hours, and she smashes the garlic with her bare hands!"

It's the sauce that restaurants in Little Italy have built their reputation on - since restaurants in Little Italy have a reputation. We're talking all-day sauces here. The sauce starts with the simplest of ingredients - canned tomatoes, some aromatics, olive oil and maybe basil - and turns them into something good families can build. around.

A sauce that tastes like this takes a whole day to make, because it really takes a whole day to make. And one thing is for sure: if I'm going to spend all day doing something (or more importantly, trying to convince you to do it), I'd better spend every second and more.

After dozens of tries, I was ready to do what the old Little Italy restaurants did: put my name on it. This is the second best red sauce you will ever taste.

There's no way I'm competing with you here.

`Mater Matters: The Best Tomatoes for Gravy

The first and most important question: what tomatoes do we use? With luck, you might get the perfect tomatoes from a farmer or maybe your garden during the summer, and if you can, Daniel shows us how to make ketchup. The best sour from fresh tomatoes.

However, if you're like most of us, your best bet is to buy good canned tomatoes.

In the supermarket, you'll find canned tomatoes in a variety of forms - mashed, diced, sauces, and more. - but what you're looking for are whole, peeled plum tomatoes packed in juice or puree. While you may be able to find a suitable can of tomato puree, whole-packaged tomatoes are almost always better quality than those used for mashed or diced tomatoes, and they allow you to Freely shred them to the size you want.

 

Choose a reliable tomato brand if you like it: of all the available American-grown tomatoes, I like Muir Glen and Cento best. If you can find them, you will never go wrong with D.O.P. San Marzano tomatoes imported from Italy. D.O.P. Seal ensures that they have been grown, harvested and processed according to very strict procedures that guarantee certain basic quality.

Now I hear you: "D.O.P. doesn't necessarily mean the best!" And it's true: better tomatoes can be found if you know where to look. But D.O.P. San Marzanos is always available and quality is guaranteed. I like this.

I have tried different methods for tomato puree. A blender or hand blender makes a relatively smooth sauce - I prefer the larger tomato pieces. The food processor gives near-ideal results, but is a bit messy to clean up.

Instead, I decided to roll up my sleeves, put the camera away, and switch to 100% analog mode here.

Crushing tomatoes between your fingers not only gives the best texture to thick sauces, but also has an incredibly healing effect. A coarse and thick texture like this turns into a sauce that still has plenty of body while still being thin enough to coat a sprig of spaghetti or a delicious meatball.
Essential olive oil for taste and texture

However, we are a bit ahead here. Before you put the tomatoes in the pot, you need to start with the oil. Oils perform several different functions in sauces. Above all, it is a means of transferring flavor. By sautéing aromatic substances like garlic in oil, you disrupt its cellular structure, releasing delicious compounds, many of which are fat-soluble. These fat-soluble compounds then work their way into the sauce.

Oil also allows you to cook at higher temperatures and less volatile than water. Many of the chemical reactions that produce flavor do not occur below the boiling point of water at 212°F. Oil is an edible medium that can be heated well above this temperature. Finally, the fat adds flavor and texture. Some people will tell you to never cook with extra virgin olive oil because it spoils its taste. Unreasonable!

It is true that some of its taste will be worse. But again, a neutral oil like canola or vegetable oil has almost no original flavor. You do math. Or let me do it for you: Many > Some > None. Sauces made with good olive oil will taste significantly better than sauces made with neutral oil. And, of course, there's no harm in putting a little fresh olive oil on the end.

Good olive oil has the potential to burn and become acrid if you overheat it, and especially when using olive oils with a lot of residue. However, when making a sauce like this, you never risk smoking the oil (unless you're doing something very wrong).

Texture-wise, the fat adds a rich, enveloping feel to the sauce, both when detached from the sauce and when emulsified with the liquid phase of the sauce, making the whole dish more creamy.

Olive oil alone does a good job. But here's a tip:

 

Also add a little butter. Fats emulsify much easier with liquids and add a whipped cream flavor to the mix.

Some slow cooker tomato sauces start with onions and garlic. That's how Vinnie makes her prison sauce at Goodfellas (slice the garlic thin enough to read with a razor blade, and that's how my former chef Barbara Lynch of 9th Park in Boston did. the chunks of onion in the finished sauce are nasty, no matter how fine you chop or how quickly you cook to break the onion, so I omit the onion. On the other hand, garlic is essential and in large quantities.

I ended up using 2 full cloves per 28-ounce or 800-gram can of tomatoes (that's 8 for the whole jar), although I chose to cut it with my knife instead of using Vinnie's Razor Blade. Trick. I compare garlic that is minced by hand to that which is passed through a garlic press and grated on a small glass plate. In many applications these methods are suitable. But here both produce pieces of garlic that are too small and too wet. Instead of softening and becoming fragrant, it burns very quickly. Manual cutting is the way to go.

The key to garlic is to cook it slowly and gently so that its flavor blends into the hot oil and butter, while being careful that the butter doesn't brown or burn.

What herbs add the most flavor to ketchup?

The issue of herbs has always been divisive. Fresh or dry? Parsley? Oregano? Basil?

I tried several iterations using fresh and dried versions of each in a variety of combinations. I ended up settling on a mixture of dried oregano leaves and fresh basil leaves and stems.

It turns out that some herbs are better dried than others. Basil and parsley both taste terrible in their dry, foil-like, glossy form of their own. On the other hand, Oregano is doing very well. The flavor is a bit different from fresh oregano, but it's rich and herbaceous in its own right, and for my wallet, it's a must-have in a good Italian-American red sauce.

Why the difference between herbs? The difference comes mainly from how specific herbs grow. Both basil and parsley have thin, fragile leaves that grow in a watery environment and are less likely to dry out completely. On the other hand, herbs that are better in drier climates, such as oregano, marjoram or rosemary, are much more potent. As a result, the aromatic compounds in these herbs also tend to be less volatile, so plants can retain them even as they lose moisture in the atmosphere.

The end result, as far as we cooks are concerned, is that better herbs from these drier places can hold their flavor much better when dried than herbs. soft leaves.

I tried putting the oregano in the sauce while it simmered, but you still end up with small crumbs that won't soften even after hours of boiling. Instead, it's best to swell the oregano in hot fat before adding the tomatoes. This allows their fat-soluble flavor compounds to work their way into the oil, thereby spreading that flavor around the sauce. It also breaks down the oregano enough that no hard bits are left at the end.

 
Along with the oregano leaves, I also added a large pinch of red pepper. A little heat will bring out all the other flavors in the sauce.

Once the garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes have reached that aromatic sweetness (only about a minute after the oregano and pepper are in), it's important to add the tomatoes right away. This will instantly cool down the pan, preventing aromatics from entering the cooking process.

For fresh herbs, a large sprig of basil added to the sauce while it is simmering adds even more flavor, and if you can get your hands on a few tomato vines, go ahead and toss. a sprig of basil. In Daniel's best fresh tomato sauce recipe, he also recommends adding "1 chopped tomato with about 5 leaves".

Looking for Sweetness: How to Sweeten Tomato Sauce

As taste tests have been repeated again and again, people prefer both sweet and sour ketchup. The problem is that the tomatoes aren't very sweet - much less sweet than me (or most people) anyway. Let me admit one thing here: I've been known to add a little sugar to my ketchup in the past, a decision that seems to upset the real people immensely. I'm not giving up on this position: adding sugar is a perfectly good way to add sweetness to a sauce. A perfectly good way, but not the best. There are other methods that allow you to add sweetness while at the same time adding layers of nuanced flavor to the mix.

Many people recommend adding carrots to red sauces for extra sweetness. I tried grated carrots and cooked them with garlic from the beginning. This certainly makes the sauce sweeter, but it also makes it taste more like carrot soup.

A much better approach is to simply cut the carrots into large pieces and place them in the pot while the sauce boils. Remember that onion I didn't want to end up in my sauce? Here's why: I also add a raw onion to give the dish a sweeter taste and flavor of the onion without overpowering or spoiling the texture - a trick I learned from the sauce Tomato Butter by Marcella Hazan.

I boil everything, then let it cook for a few hours.

My simmered carrot sweet sauce is fine, but don't mind. What's missing? I'm boiling the sauce on the stove, watching it like a hawk, constantly stirring it, like the Ray Liotta command in Goodfellas to make sure the tomatoes don't stick to the bottom and brown... Wait a minute, I told myself. What if constantly stirring isn't what I want to do? Dare I meet Ray? What if a little brown is really okay? Well, not really, but it makes for a better story so just keep going, okay? 

The best way to cook ketchup (not on the stovetop)

 
As my colleague Max Falkowitz has pointed out, all-day red sauces are quite a treat compared to fresh and quick pomodoro sauces, and the best red sauces have sauces that are rich and bold. smooth and caramelized. Pete Wells, in his New York Times review of the classic red sauce seafood restaurant Randazzo's in Sheepshead Bay, described their sauce like this:

"Tomatoes cook aged, then a little, until they are as deep caramelized as a frying pan of hot dogs."

Everything becomes clear. When you slowly cook a liquid filled with protein, sugar, and other flavor compounds (like a ketchup casserole), a number of things happen. First and foremost is reduction. The water evaporates along with some of the delicious molecules that stick to the car, leaving a more concentrated base of those proteins, sugars, and flavors. Meanwhile, if the temperature is warm enough, those same proteins and sugars will break down into smaller pieces and recombine, forming hundreds of new delicious compounds - a process that is a combination of caramelization. (the process by which sugar alone turns brown), and the Maillard reaction (the reaction that occurs between proteins and sugars when they turn brown). This creates a sweeter and more complex end result than the original ingredients.

Too much brown and caramelize and you'll end up with a sauce that's too caramelized or worse, burnt. But can controlled browning help my sauce?

Most browning doesn't happen much at temperatures below 300°F, while aqueous liquids (including tomato puree) will boil at about 212°F. It is very difficult to achieve a sauce temperature much higher than this point without concentrating its non-aqueous ingredients.

I have tried several different methods. The easiest way is to forget to stir. Eventually, the soft material from the tomato sinks to the bottom of the jar and becomes so thick and dry that it can turn brown. Unfortunately, it's a brown that's difficult to control and more often than not the sauce is burnt. What about the brown color of the aromatics? I make a slow cooker batch of garlic until golden.

It was banned. The aroma and sweetness of golden garlic is just too rich of the finished sauce.

A can of ketchup also seems like a good bet: the ketchup is already well cooked and concentrated, so frying it in olive oil in a pan will start adding some of those golden notes pretty quickly. and caramel. It's a good quick fix and a technique I would use if I wanted a good red sauce in no time, but canned ketchup has an aftertaste that I want to avoid.

How about roasting tomatoes? I've tried two ways: roasting whole tomatoes in the oven until lightly golden before turning them into a sauce, and roasting platters of shredded tomatoes in the oven until lightly golden. Just like Daniel did with his ketchup recipe made with fresh tomatoes. tomato.

Both versions taste too much like grilled tomato sauce rather than just a nice rich red sauce.

But the oven gave me an idea: when I braise rich meat in a Dutch oven, such as Texas Chili con Carne or Pork Green Chile, I start the dish on the stove, then transfer it to the oven. , keeping the lid slightly open. This not only controls some of the evaporation, but also allows for limited and very controllable browning and caramelization on the top surface of the stew.

Not only that, because the oven is a constant temperature appliance that heats in all directions as opposed to a burner on the stove - a constant energy output device that heats only from below - reducing the temperature softening in the oven is actually much easier and it requires very little stirring.

Will the same technique work for my ketchup?

I light a fresh batch, simmer on the stovetop, then transfer the entire pot to a 300°F oven with the heavy lid open about an inch. Then I waited.

And waited. Patience. So be patient.

About two hours later, I couldn't take it anymore - the smell wafted through the apartment so much that I had to see what was going on inside that jar. I walked into the kitchen, nearly tripping over the dog, and peeked inside the oven.

God, that looks good, I thought to myself. The sauce has dropped by about half an inch - there's definitely evaporation here - while a caramelized residue remains around the edges of the pan. Meanwhile, the surface of the sauce isn't brown, but a deeper, richer red than any sauce I've seen on the stove. I stirred the sauce, dabbing some darker spots on the top surface and around the edges, exposing the fresh sauce to the oven heat.

 

All in all, I let it cook for almost 6 hours before it got to the point where it legally threatened to burn. In the end, I gave in and took a few hesitant bites.

I was overrated by the amount of flavor the sauce had. Deep and complex, naturally sweet and savory, this is the most intense ketchup I've ever had, though to be honest I missed out on some of the flavors of fresh tomatoes that cook faster on the stove.
To remedy this, I simply took a few cups of tomatoes from the can and mixed them into the sauce once cooked, giving me both a tangy, caramelized tomato flavor and a taste of fresh and glossy tomatoes.

 

Even so, just as I was about to open my beer and sit down to eat my au red sauce with a spoon, a cooing voice resounded in my mind.

 

Fish sauce…, he mumbled. ... because of umami, he added.
 

Fish sauce (as well as anchovies) is a rich source of glutamate, an organic compound that activates the taste sensation on our tongues. Tomatoes are also a good source of glutamate, which is why toning down the red sauce will make it taste almost meaty even without the meat.
 

Should I? I find myself thinking, as I usually do, before doing something that I know will be fun but may regret the next morning. I mean, it sounds terrible, it could just be... Oh, keep going. Do it. As usual, if I'm in trouble, I can always blame him for thinking with my mouth instead of my brain. 

 

I grabbed fish sauce and dipped it a few times, and also made my own batch of dipping sauce with some minced anchovies cooked with garlic to start. The anchovy sauce is great, but I'd be damned if the fish sauce didn't do wonders for the pot, bringing out the flavor of the tomatoes without creating an unpleasant aroma. Do you need a sauce? No. But does that make it better? I think so.

Finish the sauce

 
Honestly, the sauce doesn't need much else. Tomatoes say the most. A little salt and black pepper, a little olive oil and a little punto. Incognito. The sauce itself is so delicious that you'll hardly be able to stop yourself from going out into town with a spoon leaning over the stove before someone else gets their hands on it. If you want the dough to rise at the last minute, you can top it with herbs. I have a friend who grows tons of his own vegetables in his Garden of Eden style garden in Berkeley. And despite (or perhaps because of) too many, he runs into the same problem with his noodle dishes: ends with parsley or basil?

For me, the answer is obvious: use one or the other, or neither, or both. If I had both on hand, I would cut the mixture and fold them over at the end. If I only have one or the other (usually basil, as I've used some for sauces before), I'll use what I have - both work. If I have nothing, then he will have nothing. Think of parsley and basil as two ties that go well with an already great shirt.

OK, the similarity is not in both links, unless you believe in the prognosis of Back to the Future.

I always save some chopped herbs so that I can make this normal herb mix right before I put the dish on the table so it looks like it's effortless. It's the neatly styled messy headboard of the red sauce world.

 

If you've been writing recipes and snooping around the internet in my circles for as long as I have, you'll realize that Italians are the proudest group of their food culture and daring to think back to a Italian staples can cause you a lot of pain. hot water if you don't respect its origin.

I like to think that this sauce, although not traditional in its technique, is something any Italian would be proud to claim as their own, or at least acknowledge that it is. very tasty despite the violation.

And now I find that completing this sauce recipe is the easy part - my fridge is stocked with batches of red sauce. The hardest part will be finding enough things to put it on.

 

Click play to learn how to make the best Italian American tomato sauce

Recipe event

• Preparation: 5 minutes                Serves: 6 to 8 servings
• Cooking: 6:15                              Make: 2 pints
• Activity: 20 minutes
• Total: 6:20

Element

• 4 cans (28 ounces) of whole tomatoes, preferably imported D.O.P. San Marzano tomatoes (see note)
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, more for garnish
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 8 minced garlic cloves (about 3 tablespoons)
• 1 teaspoon red chili
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano leaves
• 1 medium carrot, cut into large pieces
• 1 medium onion, halved
• 1 large sprig of fresh basil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce, such as Red Boat (optional)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley or basil leaves (or a mixture of both)

 Direction

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and preheat oven to 300°F (165°C). Place the tomatoes in a large bowl. Mash the tomatoes by hand by squeezing between your fingers until the remaining chunks are no more than 1/2 inch. Transfer 3 cups of mashed tomatoes to an airtight container and set aside in the refrigerator until step 4.

 

Heat olive oil and butter over medium heat in a large Dutch oven until butter is melted. Add garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until tender and fragrant but not browned, about 2 minutes. Add chili and oregano and cook, stirring, about 1 minute, until fragrant. Add tomatoes, carrots, onions and basil and stir well. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat.

 
 

Cover Dutch oven lightly and transfer to oven. Cook and stir once every 1 to 2 hours, until reduced by about half and burned to a dark red, 5 to 6 hours (reduce oven temperature if sauce boils too quickly or golden pieces begin to darken).

 

 

Remove from oven. Using tongs, remove half of the onion, carrot, and basil. Add the set tomatoes to the sauce and stir to combine. Add fish sauce if using. Season with salt and pepper, then saute the chopped herbs with olive oil if desired. Use immediately or cool to room temperature, transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 1 week. The dipping sauce can also be frozen in an airtight container for up to 6 months. To reheat, heat very gently in a saucepan with 1/2 cup water, stirring until everything is melted and warmed through.