You’re Doing Pasta Sauce All Wrong

According to Italians! 

 

The secret to an amazing pasta sauce? High quality olive oil! Who knew? Well, Italians, that’s who.

You may already use olive oil when making pasta sauce, but it’s probably not enough! Real Italian cooks don’t hold back when it comes to using the oil.

Depending on who’s doing the cooking, anywhere from 2-3 tablespoons (for a portion for two)  to half a cup for a liter of sauce is used as a suitable amount! Whoa.

There are countless variations of traditional sauce, but a basic pomodoro (tomato) sauce starts and ends with just a few ingredients: olive oil, garlic, salt and canned, crushed tomatoes.

 

Here’s how to make a basic pomodoro:

In a sauté pan, heat the olive oil and a couple of peeled, whole garlic cloves. (Remember, use 2-3 generous tablespoons of olive oil for every 2 people you’ll be serving.) As the cloves start to brown, add cracked cayenne pepper if desired.

Stir and turn the cloves until they are golden brown, then remove them from the oil and discard. Provvedi cautions not to let the oil get too hot—above 300 degrees Fahrenheit the oil will start to smoke, release fumes and smell really bad. If this happens, hold your breath, dump the oil and start over.

To the hot oil, add the canned tomatoes (eyeball the correct amount of servings you’re planning for), and be careful with the splatter.

As the tomatoes and oil cook, add salt to taste. Note that you won’t get an emulsified sauce this way, but once the sauce is mixed with the pasta, you won’t sense a distinction between oil and tomatoes.

While the sauce simmers for 20 to 30 minutes, boil a pot of salted water for pasta. As soon as the pasta is cooked and strained — but not rinsed! — add it to the sauce and serve immediately.

 

That sounds nice and all. But personally, I was raised on the ol’ Ragu. Just add sugar to taste!