7-veg tomato sauce | Vegetable recipe | Jamie Oliver recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the trick to making a rich tomato sauce? ›

Starting with good quality tomatoes and crushing them by hand offers great flavor and texture later on. The combination of butter and oil releases fat-soluble aromatics and gives the sauce a creamy texture. Slowly cooking the sauce in the oven creates rich caramelization without burning.

Peel and finely slice the garlic, then place in a non-stick frying pan on a medium heat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Stir regularly until lightly golden. Pour in the tomatoes, either scrunching them through your hands, or breaking them up with a wooden spoon. Let it simmer on a low heat until your pasta is cooked.

Add Some Umami

Some tomato sauces need a hit of the savory flavor we call umami, which you can get from a little bit of Worcestershire sauce, fish sauce, or liquid aminos. You could also use soy sauce, so long as you're sure it won't make your sauce too salty.

The reason for sprinkling a pinch of sugar into a simmering saucepan of tomatoes is simple: sugar cuts the acidity of the tomatoes and creates an overall more balanced sauce. The exact acid levels in tomatoes can vary quite a bit depending on whether they're fresh or canned, the tomato variety, and the time of year.

Fresh tomatoes: Try to stick with plum tomatoes, like Roma, San Marzano, and cherry tomatoes. Be sure to peel the tomatoes (and remove the seeds, if you like, but it's not necessary). White sugar: The sugar will balance out the acidity and give the sauce a hint of sweetness.

More to the point, the USDA recommends adding 1 Tb of lemon juice per pint of sauce. In fact, the USDA, on a site hosted by the University of Georgia, explains that the pH of canned tomato sauce must be at or below 4.6 to prevent the growth of botulism.

Add butter

Yes, that's right. Toss in a few tablespoons of butter, and let it melt into the sauce. If you've never tried it before, it might seem strange, but a little butter makes tomato sauce rich and smooth, and also balances out too much acidity, which is common in jarred sauces.

Why doesn't my tomato sauce taste good? ›

Your spaghetti sauce may taste bland due to insufficient seasoning. Try adding more salt, herbs (like basil, oregano, or thyme), and other flavor enhancers like garlic, onion, or red pepper flakes. Also, a dash of sugar can balance flavors and bring out the natural sweetness of tomatoes.

Depending on the flavours you're looking for you can add the following in whatever amounts and combinations that work for you: oregano, basil, thyme, red pepper flakes, garlic, anchovy paste (adds umami), Worcestershire, any of a hundred types of hot sauce.

To ensure a uniform, smooth texture. Tomato skins are tough and hard to chew, so removing them before you make sauces – especially canned sauces – is important. Avoid bitter flavor.

Tomatoes naturally contain lots of water, so cooking any tomato sauce for a long period of time will help eliminate some of the water content. The water will slowly but surely evaporate, leaving behind a thickened, full-bodied sauce with lots of flavor.

Most tomato sauce recipes are based on canned tomatoes, and canning companies carefully regulate the pH level of their products. So, the need to add sugar to tomato sauce is declining, but there may still be exceptions. It's best to make your sauce without sugar at first, then taste it and add a pinch if necessary.

And if you're feeling really spunky, add some meaty richness to that sauce: crisp some bacon or brown sliced sausages or ground meat. For some veggie richness, sauté mushrooms or caramelize fennel in plenty of olive oil. If you're drinking wine, you can pour in a bit to deglaze the pan as you cook them.

Adding butter at the end of cooking to your sauce will bring a beautiful glossiness to the sauce and a richness to the taste. It won't dramatically alter the thickness but it will give your sauce a lift. Make sure you add the butter to the sauce off the heat otherwise it will split.

Spruce up the sauce by using any or all of the following: red pepper flakes, fresh tomatoes or diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, olive oil, fresh basil or dried basil, grated Parmesan, a few minced garlic cloves or fresh chopped onions. Add sugar 1 teaspoon at a time for a sweeter sauce.