The #1 -Way people ruin tomato sauce -and how to repair them
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You cooked hours Tomato sauce Made from tires, juicy tomatoes from the farmers’ market, just to find it sharp and bitter. Was your olive oil rancid? Were the tomatoes spoiled or of low quality? Or was it just bad luck?
The chances are good that you have overcooked or burned your garlic. It is a mistake that even the most experienced domestic chefs can make: you turn your back for a minute and before you know your garlic is dark brown and beyond the point without return. As our editorial director, Danielhas previously writtenGarlic can burn and taste “even before it has completely turned into blackened carbon bits”. Since garlic contains a high concentration of naturally occurring sugar, it burns easily. And if the garlic is cut into slices thinly or chopped, as the ingredient is often challenged in many recipes, this is particularly susceptible to tasting.
You could skip the garlic to avoid this bitter bite, but then you would lose a critical taste component in many tomato sauces from different kitchens. When the allium is sautéed in fat such as olive oil or butter, it releases aromatic compounds that the sauce with a rich, hearty deep infuses.
The solution is to keep the garlic, but to avoid burning – and the best way to cook this over low heat.
As Daniel demonstrated in his tests, the cooking of garlic reduces the risk of combustion significantly over low heat. On high heat, Daniel’s garlic burned in just 15 seconds, while over low heat his garlic took about four and a half minutes to reach an “unwanted” phase. It is also important that your garlic is not grated too fine. As Kenji in his touched Italian-American tomato sauce recipeGarlic pressed through a garlic press or grated on a Raspel tires like a microplan that burns quickly.
So continue and make another amount of tomato sauce. However, this time pay attention to how the garlic sizzles in the pan and give it the love it deserves by making it boil over low heat. Your sauce is sweet and aromatic, without bitter aftertaste of cooked garlic.
