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Fresh tomato sauce leaves
a watery puddle under the pasta.
Q: I am making my own spaghetti sauce from garden
tomatoes, and my sauce of long simmered diced tomatoes separates
when I put it on pasta, leaving a watery puddle under the pasta.
Very unappetizing. Any suggestions? Add paste?
A: It is a common occurrence for the water to separate
in a tomato-based sauce when ladled atop pasta, especially when
fresh tomatoes are used. A little tomato paste can help prevent
it, but not always. Some cooks actually add a slurry of water
and flour (or cornstarch) to the sauce to help thicken the sauce
and prevent the effect known as a "watery halo". Another
suggestion is that pasta should never be rinsed unless
it is intended to be used in a pasta salad. It is desirable for
the stickiness of the starch to remain on the pasta because it
helps the sauce to adhere better to it. Italian cooks will even
add a little of the pasta water to the sauce because the starch
in the water helps the sauce stick better to pasta as well.
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