Pasta/Tomato/Red Sauce with Dried Herbs and Spices

[nickrey]

My preferred method is to cook it on a low heat setting, almost to the point of it being shut off, preferably slightly covered and to stir it as infrequently as possible.  I also have it on simmer for about, oh, say 40 to 45 minutes.

I used one box of Pomi chopped last night.  No salt until the end.

It could be that the flavor profile was different than your version.  My feeling is that 20 minutes is too short.

Sam doesn't give proportions.  I believe the recipe calls for 5 T. butter, not an insignificant amount.  I used a mix of Lurpak and Ronnybrook, mostly because that's what I had on hand.

←

Dear Erin,

Thank you for your concern that I am missing out on the wonderful sauce.

First I should add that I used around four tbsp of Lurpak and used the cooking time that Sam gave in his original blog.

The assumption that there must be something wrong with the way that I cooked it is one assumption that could be made. Those who have seen my cooking posts may not come to that conclusion.

The other conclusion is that not everyone sees this as the tomato sauce to end all tomato sauces.

Does it taste of tomatoes? Yes. Does it have a nice mouth feel? Yes. Is it simple? Yes.

Is it a "wow" sauce for me? No, sorry.

[C. sapidus]

Does it taste of tomatoes? Yes. Does it have a nice mouth feel? Yes. Is it simple? Yes.

Is it a "wow" sauce for me? No, sorry.

←

I also want more from a tomato sauce – chiles, garlic, herbs, anchovies, something. Different strokes, I suppose, and I did simmer the sauce for 45 minutes or so. Elder son’s reaction last night: “The tomato sauce was good, but I like that other one better.”

Now I just have to figure out which "that other one" was.

[SobaAddict70]

My preferred method is to cook it on a low heat setting, almost to the point of it being shut off, preferably slightly covered and to stir it as infrequently as possible.  I also have it on simmer for about, oh, say 40 to 45 minutes.

I used one box of Pomi chopped last night.  No salt until the end.

It could be that the flavor profile was different than your version.  My feeling is that 20 minutes is too short.

Sam doesn't give proportions.  I believe the recipe calls for 5 T. butter, not an insignificant amount.  I used a mix of Lurpak and Ronnybrook, mostly because that's what I had on hand.

←

Dear Erin,

Thank you for your concern that I am missing out on the wonderful sauce.

First I should add that I used around four tbsp of Lurpak and used the cooking time that Sam gave in his original blog.

The assumption that there must be something wrong with the way that I cooked it is one assumption that could be made. Those who have seen my cooking posts may not come to that conclusion.

The other conclusion is that not everyone sees this as the tomato sauce to end all tomato sauces.

Does it taste of tomatoes? Yes. Does it have a nice mouth feel? Yes. Is it simple? Yes.

Is it a "wow" sauce for me? No, sorry.

←

Um, ok...???

So you like what you like. Chacun à son goût.

I was just pointing out what I did. Not sure why you took offense. *shrug*

ps. who is Erin?

Edited May 17, 2009 by SobaAddict70 (log)

[C. sapidus]

As a follow-up, I finished off the single serving’s worth of leftover tomato-butter-onion sauce for lunch. To jazz it up, I sauteed cayenne and not one but two largish cloves of minced garlic in butter (like there isn’t nearly enough butter in the sauce already, right?), added the sauce and simmered until the spaghetti was done. My tongue continues to tingle from the cayenne, and I will probably share garlic fumes with the volleyball league this afternoon.

With due apologies to Marcella, Sam, and centuries of Italian culinary tradition, I greatly preferred the jazzed-up version. Perhaps taste buds far more attuned to a controlled riot of flavors miss out of the virtues of simplicity.

[slkinsey]

With due apologies to Marcella, Sam, and centuries of Italian culinary tradition, I greatly preferred the jazzed-up version. Perhaps taste buds far more attuned to a controlled riot of flavors miss out of the virtues of simplicity.

Some people, I think, are so used to the idea that a tomato sauce should be packed with tablespoons of herbs, laced with flavorful meats and redolent of many cloves of garlic, that a simple tomato and butter sauce may seem "bland" to them. This is also an issue I observe in NYC pizza preferences, where those for whom the basic paradigm of a pizza sauce is exemplified by Di Fara's multi-herbed, pancetta-flavored, garlicey sauce find the simple Neapolitan-style treatment of tomato, salt and olive oil lacking in flavor and "zip."

I know that this is something I have posted about on and off over the years, but I think there is a phenomenon that happens sometimes where the adornment becomes the game. The sauce becomes more important than the pasta; the toppings become more important than the pizza crust; and, in this case, sometimes what we think of when we think of "tomato sauce for pasta" is really the flavor of garlic (or garlic and herbs, or whatever) in a tomato substrate rather than the flavor of tomato -- which is to say that what we're "tasting for" is the other things rather than the tomato.

Personally -- and this is something I see in the evolution of a lot of cooks and palates -- when I first became intensely interested in cuisine and started doing a lot of cooking, it was all about big, intense flavors and the more the better. Every tomato sauce was packed with aromatics and meats and herbs, and the more garlic the better. (I think that most cooks go through an early stage of "everything is better with a million cloves of garlic.") People talked about the primacy of the main ingredients and letting them speak for themselves, but I don't think it really sank in at that point. Later on, and after a number of long stays in Italy, I began to come around to a different view and my cooking went increasingly in the direction of simplicity, restraint and subtlety. I won't say that it's a "better" or "higher" way of cooking or consuming cuisine, it's just become my way.

Nickrey, if you were looking for a sauce that was going to blow your head off with intensity of flavor and/or many layers of different flavors, or was going to taste of anything but sweet tomato, then I can understand why you were disappointed. I think that, among the many people who really do love this sauce, what they like about it and can find revelatory about it is the sweetness and the fact that it tastes of tomato in a way that other sauces do not. The subtlety of its flavor is one of the reasons it works so well with things such as gnocchi and ravioli di ricotta, whose light flavors typically get lost in a more emphatic sauce. On the other hand, I wouldn't think of using this sauce with, say, sausages or something whose strong flavors call for an equally strong-flavored sauce.

One thing that I will say can make a big difference in a sauce such as this where the primacy of the main ingredient is so important is the quality of the tomatoes. When I make this sauce, I always use whole DOP San Marzano tomatoes. I suppose I might go as far down the tomato ladder as to use Muir Glen tomatoes, but if I don't have tomatoes at least that good, I'll make something else. I also wouldn't make this sauce with pre-crushed tomatoes.

As for the time and amounts, I can't really say for sure. I put it on the stove in a heavy copper pan, and after a while it looks done to me. Could be 20 minutes... could be 40 minutes. I don't time it, and it probably depends on the heat setting anyway. For a 28 ounce can of San Marzanos I probably use 4 or 5 tablespoons of butter. And using enough salt is crucial.

Edited May 17, 2009 by slkinsey (log)

[slkinsey]

Thinking about this some more, I would say that if someone wants to experiment with different tomato sauces for pasta that don't migrate out of that category into other styles such as meat sauces or sauces in which the tomato plays an equal or even subordinate role to other ingredients (e.g., amatriciana, etc.), then there are certain ways to look at it. I would say that these are the usual suspects:

Base Ingredient

Fresh

Whole canned tomatoes

Crushed tomatoes

Tomato puree

Tomato paste

Aromatics

Onion

Garlic

Celery

Carrot

Fennel

Red bell peppers

Green bell peppers

Lipids

Olive oil

Butter

Rendered animal fats (lard, bacon, duck, etc.)

Herbs and Spices

Thyme

Parsley

Oregano

Basil

Celery seed

Liquids

White wine

Red wine

Dry vermouth

Vodka

Broth or stock

Cream

Water

Spicy Heat

Dry red pepper

Fresh spicy pepper

Black pepper

Extra Flavorings Added in Small Amounts

Anchovy

Dried porcini

Then comes the question of how are these things going to be prepared/treated/etc. Questions such as:

Whole Canned Tomatoes

Hand-crush?

Dice?

Food mill? Size of die? Mill before or after cooking?

Keep whole?

Tomato Paste

Maillardize?

Aromatics

Size/shape of cut? Or whole?

Mill after cooking?

Sweat? Maillardize?

When add?

Keep in finished sauce or cook and remove?

How much to use relative to tomatoes?

Texture

Chunky?

Food mill? Size of die?

Blender?

Herbs and spices

When add?

Fresh or dry?

Lipids

"Mount" at the end?

Liquids

When to add (e.g., vodka, cream)?

Spicy Heat

When to add?

I'm sure I'm missing something, but that seems like the basics. So, I think you can more or less mix and match to come up with whatever you want.

[project]

Perhaps curiously, I agree nearly fully with nearly everything Sam has written here.

In my sauce, I do believe that the tomato really is the dominant flavor: No one could be more surprised than I that even 1/2 C of minced garlic in 6.5 quarts of sauce does not dominate. Similarly for 2 pounds of onions (raw weight, actually used in the pot), the 1/4 C each of several dried herbs, etc. For the rosemary, I just threw that in because I had a rosemary plant two years ago!

At least so far I have omitted hot pepper flakes, anchovies, and capers!

I can appreciate subtlety in cooking and have had some desirable examples, essentially only from others! The usual examples have been French with a few Chinese. In my cooking, I have achieved desirable subtlety only rarely! Maybe one example was a chicken breast 'thing' from Julia's first book where do a LOT with a VERY finely cut 'mirepoix' and quite a lot of butter! It was good. Maybe another is just a lot of fresh strawberries with some sugar and heavy cream!

I can like subtlety in white wine: I like nearly anything from near Macon and no longer will even taste anything from the US!

I'm eager to learn; mostly I come to eG to learn. From Sam's sauce, I have learned. I can readily believe that there could be some outrageously expensive restaurant with a famous, 'signature' dish with some delicate stuffed pasta, ravioli, or lasagna, or even something without pasta, maybe even some seafood, where Sam's sauce would be one of the keys and where food writers around the world would keep trying to guess what was in it, what the obscure 'secret' was, when Sam explained it here: Terrific tomatoes, some good butter, and VERY little else so that the tomatoes and butter can be the show. Tough to compete with Mother Nature, and butter is one of her all-time best flavors! Maybe some especially good tomatoes are also except that tomatoes consist of some nearly unlimited collection of varieties and where the originals from nature were poisonous!

Alas, I don't remember ever seeing "whole DOP San Marzano tomatoes"! What I do remember seeing are Hunt's, Contradina, and a few more.

One of my objectives in learning is not how to create a signature dish and win Michelin stars but just how to cook for myself, daily (I prefer to eat at least once each 24 hours!), a little better on weekends, or, occasionally, for guests. Here I am big on flavor, nutrition, preparation time, and cost. Heck, I'm even willing to be 'semi-home made'!

If I don't cook for myself, then I have to eat things cooked by others, and the combination of nutrition and cost, and often flavor, suffers.

My sauce? It would have a tough time competing on 'Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives'!

Why dried herbs? Because getting and keeping the fresh ones is a PAIN. I'm trying: I grew some rosemary two years ago and some thyme last year and now am growing some basil, oregano, flat leaf parsley, and chives. I'm long chives! The winter killed the thyme, and this spring I didn't see either thyme seeds or a thyme plant for sale (my herb garden is a low priority for me now and is a sad sight!). So far the only fresh herbs I have ready to eat are the chives, but in dried herbs I have big containers of parsley, basil, oregano, rosemary, crushed red pepper flakes, bay leaves, and more.

Why lots of flavors? Because I want to enjoy good flavors, and good subtlety is harder, e.g., more expensive, more difficult.

Also, I'm no expert. The closest I've ever been to Italy was where I am now, 70 miles north of Wall Street, which is NOT very close!

It does appear -- e.g., from eG, books, and TV -- that a large fraction of Europe works much harder and is much more successful with getting good food flavors than the US; this comparison holds even when the food loving people in Europe have much less income than in the US. E.g., compare Parmigiana Reggiano with the US version in the green cardboard cylinder! Compare a US supermarket bread isle with French, Italian, or Spanish bread shops (successful US bread shops are very rare). Compare US supermarket dessert isles with Austrian, German, or French pastry shops (US pastry shops based on more than mostly just donuts are very rare). Such comparisons go on and on. I am using Mozzarella cheese made in the US, but I have no US substitute for any of several brands of Italian Pecorino Romano.

My personal pecking order of food countries starts with France and then Chinese and Italian with Austria very high for desserts and, from my knowledge, everything else notches below. I can't get enough information on how to do Chinese cooking worth a darn so go with France, Italy, and Austria. I don't do much with desserts as elaborate as a Sacher Torte so settle on Italy as easier and more robust than France.

I like Chianti, Barolo, Orvieto, and more. For Italian Chianti, I can do well for $10 a bottle and for less than $20 get some that I prefer to nearly anything from Bordeaux or California within the most I have ever paid for a bottle of wine! Although I'm not much on pasta, I like Italian red sauces!

I continue to be just staggered by the flavor of Caesar salad dressing: Right, the dressing is an invention of Southern California, but the garlic, anchovies, and olive oil, idea of a vinaigrette, and emulsifying with egg are European. For the salad itself, the croutons and cheese are European specialties.

Sure, I like butter! Along with cream (yup, Ronnybrook available near me), and eggs! But mixing butter and tomato in a sauce is new to me: I wouldn't think of it, and wouldn't expect it except from the Italian Piedmont and France.

I'm not very proud of my contribution to the original goal of this thread and am eager to hear more contributions, maybe butter and tomatoes, but especially with "herbs"!

Is there a Herb in the audience?

Here's a 'semi-home made' version of Sam's sauce: Since he doesn't really want a chunky sauce and since he removes the onion, carrot, and celery and, thus, really wants just the juices, just start with some V-8 and add a lot of butter! Since there's plenty of salt in V-8, we're down to just two ingredients! Yes, V-8 is canned, but so are "whole DOP San Marzano tomatoes"! For a fully homemade version, get one of those juice machines from TV!

I suspect that in the end, the US will catch up and even lead Europe in food: Higher emphasis on entrepreneurship and economic productivity lead to higher per capita income which help a lot! Also the US is just awash in excellent farm land which could be used for sheep for Pecorino Romano and rack of lamb, truffles, hogs in clean conditions eating acorns and corn, free range poultry, all relevant varieties of wheat sold to artisan bakers, fantastic butter and cream, more in tomato varieties, more in herb plants in grocery stores, etc. E.g., this spring I saw big displays of potted plants but nearly no plants to eat! Apparently the US would rather look at plants than eat them; I doubt that the plants fully appreciate the courtesy!

[Nargi]

Thinking about this some more, I would say that if someone wants to experiment with different tomato sauces for pasta that don't migrate out of that category into other styles such as meat sauces or sauces in which the tomato plays an equal or even subordinate role to other ingredients (e.g., amatriciana, etc.), then there are certain ways to look at it.  I would say that these are the usual suspects:

Base Ingredient

Fresh

Whole canned tomatoes

Crushed tomatoes

Tomato puree

Tomato paste

Aromatics

Onion

Garlic

Celery

Carrot

Fennel

Red bell peppers

Green bell peppers

Lipids

Olive oil

Butter

Rendered animal fats (lard, bacon, duck, etc.)

Herbs and Spices

Thyme

Parsley

Oregano

Basil

Celery seed

Liquids

White wine

Red wine

Dry vermouth

Vodka

Broth or stock

Cream

Water

Spicy Heat

Dry red pepper

Fresh spicy pepper

Black pepper

Extra Flavorings Added in Small Amounts

Anchovy

Dried porcini

Then comes the question of how are these things going to be prepared/treated/etc.  Questions such as:

Whole Canned Tomatoes

Hand-crush?

Dice?

Food mill?  Size of die?  Mill before or after cooking?

Keep whole?

Tomato Paste

Maillardize?

Aromatics

Size/shape of cut?  Or whole?

Mill after cooking?

Sweat?  Maillardize?

When add?

Keep in finished sauce or cook and remove?

How much to use relative to tomatoes?

Texture

Chunky?

Food mill?  Size of die?

Blender?

Herbs and spices

When add?

Fresh or dry?

Lipids

"Mount" at the end?

Liquids

When to add (e.g., vodka, cream)?

Spicy Heat

When to add?

I'm sure I'm missing something, but that seems like the basics.  So, I think you can more or less mix and match to come up with whatever you want.

←

I think you're over-thinking this.

I agree, everyone wants something special and, as a few people here have stated, a "wow" sauce, but I don't think it needs to be so technical or intricate.

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I was really looking for something simple that I could just "throw together", so to speak. It wasn't that I was asking anyone to invent something magical or work day and night to perfect tomato sauce. I suppose it was more of just me simply asking "Does anyone make a tomato sauce with pantry staples alone?", which granted, you answered the question well enough (I actually has some sauce I already made and just added butter to it and it was awesome), but I think the simplistic nature of my question has snowballed into something a little overly complicated.

Incidentally, in response to a previous post, I'm a chef (as in, I went to school, worked my way up the line and now run a kitchen) and I still subscribe to the "everything is better with a million cloves of garlic" camp. Garlic is nature's candy.

[deltadoc]

I long have understood wanting to have a quick meal without a lot of fuss. Overtime, I found that taking the time to make a really big batch of sauce and then taking the time to pressure can it was more than worth the effort.

Some basic rules I generally go by (remembering that rules are meant to be broken from time to time):

1. Oregano is a pizza sauce ingredient.

2. Basic pasta sauces work well with canned tomatoes because they're picked at the peak of ripeness, and canned within a short time capturing their flavor and nutrition.

3. Two basic sauce spice combinations: Basil, garlic, onion or rosemary, thyme and a bit of sage. Lots of variations on these basics, but they really are different but very tasty too.

4. I butter the pasta from time to time, never used it in the sauce. I kind of like the healthiness of long term use of Extra Virgin Olive Oil as the main source of fat in my diet. Butter may be lots better than margarine (despite years of hearing just the opposite), but the case for monounsaturated fat is pretty much bullet proof. I use butter in extreme moderation.

5. A great flowery EVOO is worth the price. And since I only use cold pressed, and strive for 1st cold pressing, I believe that the nutrition contained therein far surpasses just regular cold pressed OO, and forbid that I ever use "Light" OO, which is almost always solvent extracted from the olive mash.

6. Lilia Bastinavich (sp?) likes to put some tomato paste in the pan's "hot spot" to carmelize it. I've heard many disparaging remarks about using tomato paste, but you can't argue that it has a tremendous amount of healthy stuff in paste as compared to cooking down fresh tomatoes or even canned tomatos. I forget for the moment what that stuff is that makes tomato paste so good for you. I'll have to google it later.

doc

Edited May 17, 2009 by deltadoc (log)

[nickrey]

Um, ok...??? 

So you like what you like.  Chacun à son goût.

I was just pointing out what I did.  Not sure why you took offense.  *shrug*

ps.  who is Erin?

←

on ps, my mistake, sorry.

No offence taken at all.

I just felt the discussion was closing off when it needed to be open. Seems to have had the desired effect.

[nickrey]

Nickrey, if you were looking for a sauce that was going to blow your head off with intensity of flavor and/or many layers of different flavors, or was going to taste of anything but sweet tomato, then I can understand why you were disappointed.  I think that, among the many people who really do love this sauce, what they like about it and can find revelatory about it is the sweetness and the fact that it tastes of tomato in a way that other sauces do not.  The subtlety of its flavor is one of the reasons it works so well with things such as gnocchi and ravioli di ricotta, whose light flavors typically get lost in a more emphatic sauce.  On the other hand, I wouldn't think of using this sauce with, say, sausages or something whose strong flavors call for an equally strong-flavored sauce.

←

I must add when I tasted the sauce, I did think it would be very good with gnocchi but yesterday's sauce was destined for spaghetti.

My most simple spaghetti sauce consists of very finely diced garlic (a little only and I tend not to use it much in tomato pasta sauces), butter, and salt.

For a very simple tomato-based sauce I use olive oil as a cooking medium and a sofritto of very finely diced onion (softened, not browned) followed by very finely diced carrot and celery (again softened). The fine dice is very important as it not only releases more flavour but also clings to the pasta when it is cooked -- I'm talking around 3mm dice. Then add the canned tomatoes including the juice. The sauce is then cooked at a medium heat until the tomatoes break down. It is approaching being cooked when the whole mass starts spitting tomato upwards (sort of like a bubbling tomato volcano and note this is on medium heat, not high); this continues for a while as the caramelisation progresses. To serve I add chopped fresh basil (if using dried, I'd add them earlier). The tasting then occurs in which salt, pepper, and sometimes a small drop of balsamic is added to achieve balance.

For a normal sized can of tomatoes, I'd used half a medium sized onion, half a medium sized carrot and an amount of celery equalling the amount of carrot.

That's it, it takes around 40 minutes beginning to end.

edited to add quantities.

Edited May 17, 2009 by nickrey (log)

[nickrey]

I forget for the moment what that stuff is that makes tomato paste so good for you.  I'll have to google it later.

doc

←

Lycopene, it occurs in cooked tomatoes.

[KatieLoeb]

I made a delicious cavatappi with fennel, onions and tomato from what I had in the pantry tonight. Boiled the cavatappi for 8 minutes so it was still quite al dente, and then drained them. Sauteed chopped fennel until half cooked through in butter and EVOO, then added diced onion and 2 cloves of garlic. I let that saute for another five muntes and then dumped in a large can of fire roasted diced tomatoes and the dregs of a jar of spaghetti sauce from the fridge. I let this all cook and kept stirring until the veggies were almost soft. A big pinch of dried tarragon, salt and pepper and I was good to go. A nice sprinkle of grated cheese finished it off. I have oodles of leftovers I need to bring over to somebody's house soon. I really am no good at cooking for one.

I always keep a couple of jars of commercial sauce, canned tomatoes in various forms and different shapes of pasta in the pantry. You never know when you'll only have time to just throw something together.

[Nargi]

I made a delicious cavatappi with fennel, onions and tomato from what I had in the pantry tonight.  Boiled the cavatappi for 8 minutes so it was still quite al dente, and then drained them.  Sauteed chopped fennel until half cooked through in butter and EVOO, then added diced onion and 2 cloves of garlic.  I let that saute for another five muntes and then dumped in a large can of fire roasted diced tomatoes and the dregs of a jar of spaghetti sauce from the fridge.  I let this all cook and kept stirring until the veggies were almost soft.  A big pinch of dried tarragon, salt and pepper and I was good to go.  A nice sprinkle of grated cheese finished it off.  I have oodles of leftovers I need to bring over to somebody's house soon.  I really am no good at cooking for one.

I always keep a couple of jars of commercial sauce, canned tomatoes in various forms and different shapes of pasta in the pantry.  You never know when you'll only have time to just throw something together.

←

What pre-made sauce do you find that you actually like to use? I tend to find issues with most of them (I'd say most of the time, it's the fact they have sugar or HFCS in them).

[C. sapidus]

Personally -- and this is something I see in the evolution of a lot of cooks and palates -- when I first became intensely interested in cuisine and started doing a lot of cooking, it was all about big, intense flavors and the more the better.  Every tomato sauce was packed with aromatics and meats and herbs, and the more garlic the better.  (I think that most cooks go through an early stage of "everything is better with a million cloves of garlic.")  People talked about the primacy of the main ingredients and letting them speak for themselves, but I don't think it really sank in at that point.  Later on, and after a number of long stays in Italy, I began to come around to a different view and my cooking went increasingly in the direction of simplicity, restraint and subtlety.  I won't say that it's a "better" or "higher" way of cooking or consuming cuisine, it's just become my way.

←

Well-stated as usual, Sam. Some cooks follow your progression, learning simplicity and restraint; others progress by learning to balance strong flavors into a harmonious whole. Entering my third decade of “everything is better with a million cloves of garlic”, I would be greatly surprised if my tastes evolved towards simplicity or, perish the thought, restraint and subtlety.

My preferences are hardly unique, of course. Many non-European cuisines stubbornly refuse to evolve from the “million cloves of garlic” stage, and those are the cuisines that interest me most. Would a Thai curry paste be improved by removing a few cloves of garlic from the mortar? In Thai Food, David Thompson recounts the Siamese ambassador’s visit to the court of Louis XIV in Versailles. The Siamese ambassador described French food thusly:

Wine “helps give taste to the food which otherwise be insipid to our palates; here are few spices and much meat, and an attraction of quantity replaces piquant wholesomeness.”

One order of piquant wholesomeness for me, please.

And to keep within shouting distance of the original topic, Marcella Hazan’s tomato and anchovy sauce (click) can be made with pantry staples (you just need to make sure that anchovy fillets, garlic, and parsley are pantry staples).

[Emily_R]

Getting back to Nargi's original post, I just wanted to link to a marinara sauce recipe that someone I know from another cooking forum has recommended. I haven't made it yet, but I do think it has some interesting ingredients I hadn't thought of adding -- a bit of crushed fennel seeds, a little balsamic, and some chicken stock. All three of these sound like they would make nice additions to a marinara, and the sauce is pretty much all pantry-ingredients....

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefi...cipe_id=1662822

[prasantrin]

And to keep within shouting distance of the original topic, Marcella Hazan’s tomato and anchovy sauce (click) can be made with pantry staples (you just need to make sure that anchovy fillets, garlic, and parsley are pantry staples).

←

Could someone translate the first few lines of that recipe for me?

1. Put the garlic in a saucepan, and bring it to a lively simmer.

2. Put the garlic and oil in a saute pan and another saucepan, turn the heat to medium, and cook and stir the garlic until it becomes colored a very pale gold.

3. Place the pan with the garlic and oil over the saucepan of simmering water, double-boiler fashion.

I think I've figured it out, but I want someone else's trained recipe translation mind on it.

[SobaAddict70]

And to keep within shouting distance of the original topic, Marcella Hazan’s tomato and anchovy sauce (click) can be made with pantry staples (you just need to make sure that anchovy fillets, garlic, and parsley are pantry staples).

←

Could someone translate the first few lines of that recipe for me?

1. Put the garlic in a saucepan, and bring it to a lively simmer.

2. Put the garlic and oil in a saute pan and another saucepan, turn the heat to medium, and cook and stir the garlic until it becomes colored a very pale gold.

3. Place the pan with the garlic and oil over the saucepan of simmering water, double-boiler fashion.

I think I've figured it out, but I want someone else's trained recipe translation mind on it.

←

replace "garlic" with water in the first instruction and should make more sense.

[prasantrin]

And to keep within shouting distance of the original topic, Marcella Hazan’s tomato and anchovy sauce (click) can be made with pantry staples (you just need to make sure that anchovy fillets, garlic, and parsley are pantry staples).

←

Could someone translate the first few lines of that recipe for me?

1. Put the garlic in a saucepan, and bring it to a lively simmer.

2. Put the garlic and oil in a saute pan and another saucepan, turn the heat to medium, and cook and stir the garlic until it becomes colored a very pale gold.

3. Place the pan with the garlic and oil over the saucepan of simmering water, double-boiler fashion.

I think I've figured it out, but I want someone else's trained recipe translation mind on it.

←

replace "garlic" with water in the first instruction and should make more sense.

←

And in line 2 you put the garlic and oil in another saucepan, not a saute pan, right? Not that it matters that much, but since you eventually put the pan containing the garlic and oil over the simmering water, it seems you would need to put the garlic and oil in a saucepan smaller than that holding the water. (nice run-on sentence there)

One would think Star Chefs would do a better job editing the recipes on their site.

[C. sapidus]

And in line 2 you put the garlic and oil in another saucepan, not a saute pan, right?  Not that it matters that much, but since you eventually put the pan containing the garlic and oil over the simmering water, it seems you would need to put the garlic and oil in a saucepan smaller than that holding the water.  (nice run-on sentence there)

One would think Star Chefs would do a better job editing the recipes on their site.

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In line two, replace "and another saucepan" with "or another saucepan" (and I apologize for not reading more closely before linking).

[djyee100]

One would think Star Chefs would do a better job editing the recipes on their site.

They were at Aspen at the time. Maybe they were enjoying a Rocky Mountain high when they wrote those instructions. Try this--

Thin Spaghetti with Anchovy & Tomato Sauce

adapted from The Classic Italian Cookbook by Marcella Hazan

1 tsp garlic, chopped

1/3 cup olive oil

4 anchovy fillets, chopped

2 TB freshly chopped parsley

1 1/2 cups canned Italian tomatoes, chopped, with their juice

Salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 lb spaghettini

In a small saucepan, saute the garlic in the oil over medium heat until the garlic is lightly colored. Add the anchovies and parsley, and saute for another 30 secs. Add the tomatoes, salt & pepper. Lower the heat & simmer for 25 mins. Stir frequently. Taste and adjust for seasoning.

Cook the spaghettini in lightly salted boiling water until the pasta is al dente. Drain, remove to a warm bowl, and mix with the sauce. Serve immediately.

This recipe sounds good to me.

[prasantrin]

They were at Aspen at the time. Maybe they were enjoying a Rocky Mountain high when they wrote those instructions.    Try this--

Thin Spaghetti with Anchovy & Tomato Sauce

adapted from The Classic Italian Cookbook by Marcella Hazan

1 tsp garlic, chopped

1/3 cup olive oil

4 anchovy fillets, chopped

2 TB freshly chopped parsley

1 1/2 cups canned Italian tomatoes, chopped, with their juice

Salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 lb spaghettini

In a small saucepan, saute the garlic in the oil over medium heat until the garlic is lightly colored. Add the anchovies and parsley, and saute for another 30 secs. Add the tomatoes, salt & pepper. Lower the heat & simmer for 25 mins. Stir frequently. Taste and adjust for seasoning.

Cook the spaghettini in lightly salted boiling water until the pasta is al dente. Drain, remove to a warm bowl, and mix with the sauce. Serve immediately.

This recipe sounds good to me. 

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I think it sounds good, too! But I can hear the complaints about the smell of anchovies wafting through the air when I nuke my lunch . . . but hey, I don't complain about their stinky perfume, and anchovies smell way better than that!

Much clearer directions, thanks! I wonder what the difference in flavour would be between doing the double boiler thing (on the star chefs' site) vs. no double boiler?

I'd stick some olives in there, too. And maybe some capers. Wait a minute! Isn't that a puttanesca?

[djyee100]

I wonder what the difference in flavour would be between doing the double boiler thing (on the star chefs' site) vs. no double boiler?

I suspect the double boiler prevents burning. Hazan's instructions caution you to keep stirring the simmering sauce. Given the short cooking time, I would not expect much difference in flavor between the two versions.

I'm curious to try this recipe, too.

[Tom Gengo]

My best advice:  Forget all the herbs and spices and multi-stage preparation.  You want a brilliant tomato sauce that is inexpensive and mind-blowingly delicious?  Get a can of high-quality tomatoes, an onion, and a nice big lump of butter.  Skin the onion and cut it in half.  Crush or mill the tomatoes to whatever consistency you would like.  Put the onion, butter, tomato and some salt into a cold saucepan.  Turn the heat on low.  Allow the sauce to come up to a gentle simmer over around 20 minutes, by which time the butter will emulsify into the sauce and the onion will have contributed its flavor.  Discard the onion and use the sweet, tomatoey sauce.  Add a little crushed red pepper or some minced fresh parsley off the heat, if you like.  But nothing further is necessary.

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I make the same sauce: 2 med. onions, 1 28 oz. of crushed tomatoes- all other canned tomatoes have calcium choride which prevents the tomatoes from breaking down- and 2 oz. of butter for 2 lbs of pasta. Cook over low heat thicken, c. 1 hr. To enrich it for special meals I sometimes add 1/2 pint of heavy cream. Got the recipes from Marcella Hazan's son's pasta cookbook. My twist is to add 1 cup of the pasta water and then add the pasta- cook the pasta 2 min's short of the package directions- and cook until the sauce thickens and clings to the pasta. The sauce will actually cook into the pasta surface so it clings to it.

Edited May 20, 2009 by Tom Gengo (log)

[slkinsey]

28 oz. of crushed tomatoes- all other canned tomatoes have calcium choride which prevents the tomatoes from breaking down

I am right now looking at a can of La Valle DOP San Marzano pomodori pelati. Calcium chloride is not listed as an ingredient. Looking on the internet, I also do not find calcium chloride listed as an ingredient in cans of whole peeled tomatoes by Bel Aria, San Marzano tomatoes by Ciao, and others.