I'm keeping my eyes on this thread; always looking for good sauce recipes!

There are many recipes for good Italian sauce. The biggest improvement in taste is in getting the best tomato possible.

The secret? I grow my own tomato to make sauce. First remove the skin, then take out the seeds, but not the gel around the seeds. I use a sieve to remove the seeds. The seeds tend to taste a little bitter.

Then I just add herbs, etc. and make the sauce.

I always have some Italian music going in the background while I make the sauce, but I don't think that has anything to do with making a great tasting sauce :-).

dcarch

Like darch I think the secret to great tomato sauce is fresh ingredients starting with fresh tomatoes.

I make about 50 jars of tomato sauce every year. Some of the tomato sauce I just add just herbs, the rest I add a bit of finely grated carrot, onion and bell pepper.

I also make another 50 or so jars of stewed tomatoes and another maybe 20 of a piquante sauce.

You can do small batches but I just love opening a jar of "fresh" tomato sauce in the middle of winter.

My tomato sauce is, fresh tomatoes boiled until the skin pops (takes seconds)for easy peepling. Remove the seeds and process with a hand blender. To this I add fresh basil, fresh oregano, fresh parsley. If you are canning it don't add the garlic until you are ready to use it.

You can add some very finely chopped onion and bell pepper if you like but I like just herbs. Try some finley minced hot peppers for a zippier sauce.

Simmer until reduced to your liking.

Pork. Pork in some form is probably in all meat sauces. Marinara is meatless, so no chicken stock or pork in marinara.

My dad simmered his sauces all day long; he knew the exact moment to declare the pot finito. He would serve up a big bowl of meats every Sunday; we kids would wait our turns to get the best pork chops.

Never put the cheese (parmesano romano)in the pot while cooking the sauce; it gets sprinkled over the top of the
finished product after you grate it yourself.

Also, you need a good size glass of dago red for the pot, and more for the table.

I don't know if the trick is necessarily high-end ingredients. You must have at least one perfect pork chop per pot for the honored person/kid, but the rest of the meats are ends, bones, etc. Same with the sea sauces - shells and junk we throw away for the most part, simmered forever.

As for the tomatoes, if you don't grow and can them yourself, you can substitute San Marzano or Contadina whole peeled plum tomatoes; if you can't get those, you can't make sauce! And you must squish the tomatoes yourself with your hands before you begin cooking.

Sherry

I think strong white wines (oaky chardonnays), garlic, chicken or clam broth along with good evoo and butter make amazing sopping sauces. The garlic has to be simmered quite awhile first in the oil before adding everything else and then reducing by half.
Butter is added at the end.

Meat sauces, agree with the pork. Growing up, we always threw a package (small!) of cheap pork chops in the sauce pot. It simmered all day and at the end the bones were fished out.
That was the beat sauce ever.

Well, my dream for this summer was to get a community garden plot and grow my own tomatoes. I got the plot and ordered the seeds and started them. My dream was shattered, I got very sick, the seedlings languished and are now dying, and I had to give up the plot. Plus, blight is showing its ugly head again here in PA.

I'm sure those sauces I had the other night were not made with fresh tomatoes, unless the store-bought, shipped-in from who-knows-where tomatoes now in the grocery will actually do for this kind of thing, which I doubt. So perhaps for the marinara, I should look into getting something other than the store brand canned tomatoes. Brand recommendations? I also think some high end sundried toms might not be a bad idea either. Fresh herbs I can manage. But as for a golden sauce, whoa, I'm out of my league.

I have to disagree about adding cheese to a simmering sauce. I save all my Parmesan rinds and add them to simmering meat sauce/gravy. Enriches the sauce.

Ann

If you can't start with fresh tomatoes, 6-in-1 brand crushed tomatoes with puree, which I learned about on this forum, are used as a base for Italian restaurant sauces in some areas.

I love the brand -- it uses vine-ripened tomatoes and does not have the bitterness of some brands containing citric acid.

Lpink,

Don't give up on canning your own tomatoes.

I buy "over ripes" at the farmers market for $7 a bushel! You have to wait until the end of the season but it's well worth it.

I actually prefer the over ripes because they smoosh up so easliy!

I use the rinds, too, Ann, but not in red sauces. We never cook the cheese into a red sauce....but maybe I'll try it.....someday.

Lpink, san marzano or contadina whole peeled plum tomatoes. Also, shred a carrot into the sauce early on, or add a pinch of sugar.

For white sauces, always heat the evoo first, then add the butter. Then saute the herbs and veggies, and again, add the cheeses last. Don't brown/burn the garlic, but carmelize the onions. Add pasta water to increase and thicken the sauces; if you're making a seafood sauce use the seafood poaching water and add the seafood to the pan sauce at the end of cooking time.

Sherry

I expect its like all sauces, time and concentration of flavours.

Pork neck bones are what I use, less expensive than pork chops and all the gelatin in them makes the sauce silky smooth.

I use Parmesan rinds as Ann T does.

A popular and busy restaurant will have an amazing amount of shellfish "remains" on hand, along with fish carcasses, etc. I suspect the sauce simply was a concentration of an amount of ingredients that we don't often get at home.

And lets not discount the judicious addition of a high quality stock base. A little bit added to your home made stock will bump things up. I'm not talking about salt cubes, tho.

Metexa I'll be you are right on the money about those "remains." No way in my life would I ever be able to afford enough of the fancy seafood required to make a good fish stock for a base, but I'll bet in addition to having excellent seafood on the menu, they have an excellent assortment of "parts" for a good broth.

I might just have to poach a chicken one of these days and make me up some good broth. I rarely eat chicken but I could freeze the broth and use it for a good long while. If I make nice with the butcher I might be able to get some pork bones for a red sauce. Although Penzeys makes a pork soup base maybe that's not too bad. I'd be really interested in some commercial broths or bouillons, because truth be told I don't really want to mess with making my own broth, even though I know it is the key to A+ soup too. Being mostly vegetarian, messing about with flesh and bones just doesn't ring my bell as something to do, although I am more than happy to EAT something that someone else has messed with. That's the main reason I cook, not because I like to cook, but because I like to EAT. Frankly, if I married a man who liked to cook and could do it well I would happily turn the kitchen over to him!

So about this garlic, does that mean whole cloves smooshed, or minced? I noticed the sauces at this place had whole garlic cloves in them. I am not a garlic fan though, I only like it in moderation.

Also, what's a good red wine to add? I use a local chambourcin. Is Chardonnay better than Pino Grigo or Sauvignon Blanc for white? I have small bottles of Pino Grigo on hand for cooking. The local Chardonnay, Clover Hill, is nice and oakey. I rotate between drinking those two types of white wine. I like red wine but it doesn't like me, sadly.

Chase, that is my last best hope for canning tomatoes, to get some from the farm market at the end of the year. I have always done that in the past, but good canning tomatoes are not easily acquired, (although it CAN be done, for sure) and last year was just so sad with late blight doing a number on the crop here. I love the taste of home canned tomato products, I think a lot of it is due to not having any metal interactions with the finished product either. Meanwhile I'm going to check out some of these other brands, they don't cost an arm and a leg even if they are more expensive than the "store" brands.

If you can't have any beef, veal or pork - you can make a decent "meat" sauce with ground turkey...saute the turkey meat(dark meat is best or mixture) with one or two minced fresh garlic cloves (no jarred minced garlic please) a little salt and pepper and some red pepper flakes. Meanwhile saute about about 6 to 8 cloves of minced garlic and one fine chopped small onion in olive oil until translucent - buzz two large cans of San Marzano Imported peeled tomatoes and the liquid in the can in a blender (you may leave it a little chunky)- pour this in the pot with the sauteed garlic/onion mixture. Simmer - and one small can of tomato paste(imported)-rinse out the can with white wine or dry white vermouth or water and pour into the pot. Drain the meat and add to the pot - add the following - two bay leaves, a few pinches of dry oregano, a few sprigs of fresh thyme or a pinch of dryed. Red pepper flakes, ground black pepper and salt to taste. 1 scant teaspoon of sugar...let whole thing simmer for 45 minutes. At the end - mix in fresh chopped flat leaf parsley and serve over a substantial short pasta - like rigatoni or penne. I usually roast veal neck bones and use veal stew meat in my sauce...simmered until if falls apart, shredded and put back in the sauce without the bones of course! Enjoy! -maria

The garlic preparation doesn't matter that much but long, slow in oil does make a difference. It mellows the garlic along with distributing the flavor. I usually mince it with a garlic press. If I use dried spices I add those with the garlic. Don't brown the garlic.
In cooking, I like very strong wines, ie. Chardonnay and Cabernets. I think they hold up better to reducing and to me, taste better in a finished dish.

Shallots are often used in restaurants more often than at home and might be one of the allusive flavors you're seeking.

You say you want to cook a wonderful over the top pasta sauce....but you don't want to do any of the things that must be done to make a great sauce...
Gather up your courage and roast and boil up some pork neck bones and some ox tail....put lots of garlic in the roasting pan and onions and a couple of carrots....then roast until nicely browned...put into a pot with water to cover, add a good cup of dry red wine....doesn't matter a whit if it's bourgundy or shiraz or zinfandel or even a chianti....just pour in s generous amount of wine....simmer for 6 hours or more, strain and you have the basis for a wonderful mushroom sauce....or to add to some tomatoes for a marinara.
But you say you can't get fresh tomatoes, don't want to buy fresh seafood, won't mess with red meat and don't eat chicken....
My best advice is to go to that restaurant and ask if they will sell your a pint of that sauce. It may be expensive, but in the long run, you will get what you want to eat without messing with red meat or seafood shells.
Stock bases won't give you that deep flavor.
Linda

Sorry Linda but my life is about compromises. I can't eat red meat for health reasons. I can't afford fresh seafood on a regular basis, I am a woman of very modest means and getting more and more modest as the years of marginal employment roll on. And I can't get fresh tomatoes because it is JUNE and that's not fresh tomato season in PA!!

But I like your idea of roasting some of the vegetables before adding to the sauce, like carrots. Those are sure yummy roasted!

And on another note, I just got back from the grocery store, the imported San Marazano tomatoes were $3.99 for a 28 ounce can. Contadina was $1.59 for the same amount of whole peeled tomatoes, although not imported San Marazano! They didn't have the 6 in one brand but this was just ye olde local supermarket.

Linda, she is trying to duplicate a non meat sauce so any meat is irrelevant to her.
The thread has veered somewhat to a discussion of Italian sauces in general, but we all know lpink is a vegetarian and has had job insecurities.
She could still make a fine sauce without lots of money.

Since she had brothy seafood sauces, I still think a wine reduction with clam juice would be a good place to start.

Yeah, I'm not on an anti-meat, cheapo crusade and I'm sure there are many people on here who would benefit from the discussion who DO eat meat and like to fuss with it. This is a discussion for learning! What I post is just my taste, my issues, not meant to imply that these secrets wouldn't be GREAT for others to try! Plus I''m anxious to hear about people's experiences with Italian sauces in general. I may be austere, but I am still a foodie, lol!

Well, my dad used to sneak honey into his tomato sauces. I never knew until last year! It did make a big difference.

Also, I like to heat any veggies, herbs etc. in the olive oil first, then add the sauce. I add balsamic while it is cooking and a dash more when it is done. I add a dash of olive oil before serving.

I don't eat salt but you can really spruce up a sauce with a pinch of sea salt.

We stick to a budget too and we always shop about for the marked down tomatoes. We can get a whole bag (couple pounds?) for 99 cents and we chop 'em up and toss 'em in.

My ideas are kind of simple but I find they make a big difference in taste.

Ah, I didn't catch the vegetarian thing either. Sorry.

When you make up vegetable broth or stock you want to ensure that you include foods that will contribute umami...a Japanese word that doesn't translate.

Means something along the lines of taste, mouth feel, how you feel while you eat something.

Veggies that are said to contain umami are tomatoes, certain kinds of mushrooms, soy beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, Chinese cabbage and I forget if there are more...Google can help there.

Also, soy sauce and those Parmesan rinds contain it. Seaweed contains it. A significant number of fish and shellfish do as well.

So, if I were to be making a vegetable sauce, I'd start with a broth with as many of those things in it as possible.

I'm no food fad jumper on type guy but I can tell you anecdotaly that I've always been known for winter stews and the compliments have increased noticeably since I read about umami (Cooks Ill, I think) and started to incorporate "it" into my cooking process.

(I even have friends who don't cook so much saving me their Parm rinds.)

A lot of good information!

My daughter has moved toward more vegetarian, but still likes that "carmelization/brown/depth" taste? I recently made Ina's roasted tomatoes using the lowly plum. I've linked the recipe below, but in her "Barefoot Contessa - Back to Basics" Book, she left the cores in (seeds removed) and sprinkled with 10 large fresh basil leaves julienned. She served it as a side, but it was a bit intense for us but it might serve well as an enhancer/add depth to some sauce. We ended up dicing the tomatoes and eating as a bruschetta with feta and also used with pasta and mozarella. Pretty good, but this recipe killed my pan -- use foil.

As an aside and not to be an alarmist, late blight has ALREADY been confirmed in my surrounding counties. I lost all tomatoes last year.

Cathy in SWPA

Here is a link that might be useful: Ina's Roasted Tomatoes

If you want to try and duplicate that restaurant's sauces, my suggestion is a moonlight adventure with your friend to check the dumpster behind the building. With a few pokes and stirs from the broom you take along with you, you should be able to discover what brand(s) of canned tomato products they use.

LOL Ruthanna, that WOULD be a good secret mission!

OH funny Ruthanna! One day the kitchen door was opened in a restaurant we were dining in and I kept looking and looking to see what brands of canned stuff they used...it was very interesting!

One of my favorite, basic tomato sauces comes from a recipe by Marcella Hazan, "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking".

Quote from the book, "This is the simplest of all sauces to make, and has a purer, more irresistibly sweet tomato taste. I have known people to skip the pasta and eat the sauce directly out of the pot with a spoon."

I will vouch for this sauce, it has a cult following. It's amazing!

Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
Recipe by: Marcella Hazan

2 lbs fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeded or 2 cups of good canned tomatoes, cut up with their juice
5 tablespoons of butter
1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
Salt (to taste...I use about 1/2 teaspoon to start)

Put the tomatoes (fresh or canned) in a saucepan, add the butter, onion and salt, and cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer for 45 minutes, or until the fat floats free from the tomato. Stir from time to time, mashing any large piece of tomato in the pan with the back of a wooden spoon. Taste and add salt if needed. Discard the onion before tossing with pasta.

**Note: the cooked onion is wonderful! Don't throw it away...chop it up and eat it!

Would Marcella approve of using an immersion blender to blend all the tomatoes (and maybe some of that onion) at the end of the cooking time? Not being sarcastic, just love my blender (aka boat motor) for making smooth sauces.

Teresa

Aren't smooth sauce and tomato tomato sauce opposites?

A smooth tomato sauce would be called baby food in my house.

(typing with a grin, btw)

I just chop whatever into chunks, toss the entire mess into a roaster, add whatever and put it in the oven. Drizzle with a little balsamic, a sprinkle of oil. Stir every now and then and at some point it is done.

As it is cooling I may or may not add some parsley.

Works for us.

Lpink, before checking the garbage behind the restaurant, what about calling them and asking about the recipe? They might share, or at least share part.

(If that doesn't work out, buy a pint and study it!)

Such wonderful tips here. I wish I didn't have to cook for a picky 5 year old sometimes!

Do you think they would give away the secrets that easily, lol!

I day-dreamed about making sauces on the plane ride out to MI yesterday. I can't wait to try some of these techniques out and report back. My next effort in the kitchen I think is going to be to try and make some really good eggplant parmesean, and for that I'll need a really great marinara.

Sometimes they do! My sister-in-law has pestered the recipe for some stuffed peppers out of a restaurant. Maybe they didn't want her back. :)

I was going to post the Marcella Hazan sauce, but gardengrl beat me to it. :o) It's absolutely delicious and no meat needed.
For a different flavor, I sometimes throw in a finely shredded carrot and a few frozen or dried porcini mushrooms. Very tasty.

There are so many good, basic, tomato sauce recipes available.

I have started with my own fresh tomatoes and also with canned. I use the basics, (onion, garlic, chopped celery, parsley, a small touch of sugar to counteract acidity, S&P) and cook down to concentrate and thicken. I never use any dairy in the sauce, and Lidia advises never to cook the cheeses in the sauce.

I also like mushrooms in the sauce, but sautee these in butter and olive oil beforehand....to be added (last) when the sauce is finished concentrating. If I have any gravy in the fridge, left over from a roast (pork or beef), that is added in. (Knowing restaurant kitchens...they do not waste a thing in the way of useable food; so wouldn't be surprised if they don't do the same thing!)

While concentrating, keep a watchful eye so the tomatoes don't scorch; low temp. setting; stir often from the very bottom of the pot.

Lots of good ideas on this thread, Lpink, thanks for starting it!

Having tried several different basic tomato sauce recipes, this one has become my "staple" sauce. Depending on my mood, I add whatever optional ingredients I am craving at the time, whether it be meats, cheeses, mushrooms, a variety of vegetables, etc. It makes quite a bit, so I freeze it in smaller portions for future use.

Basic Marinara
Source: Cooking Light October 2007

3T olive oil
3 c chopped onion
1T sugar
3T minced garlic (about 6 cloves)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp dried basil
1-1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
2T balsamic vinegar
2 c chicken broth
3 28oz cans crushed tomatoes

Heat oil in large stockpot over medium heat. Add onion, cook 4 minutes stirring frequently. Add sugar and next 7 ingredients (through fennel), cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in vinegar, cook 30 seconds. Add broth and tomatoes, bring to a simmer. Cook over low heat 50-60 minutes until thickened, stirring occasionally.

Yield: about 12 cups sauce

Linda