You can easily imrpove your spaghetti with one extra ingredient (Image: Getty)
Spaghetti is a delicious dish most people cook at least once a week due to how simple it is, and there is an easy way to improve your tomato sauce so it tastes even better.
It can be frustrating to dinner only for the sauce to taste bland or even bitter, but this often happens as many people do not realise they need to balance out the flavour.
Tomatoes are naturally acidic and they can overpower a dish if you do not season the sauce properly, which is why it is important to be careful what ingredients you are adding to your sauce.
Ashlyn Edwards, a cook and , has shared that the best way to draw out the acid and tanginess of tomatoes is to add a small amount of brown sugar to your tomato sauce.
She said: “Don’t skip the brown sugar. Adding a bit of sugar to your homemade spaghetti sauce helps to cut the natural acidity of the tomatoes and helps to balance the sauce.”
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Brown sugar will mke your brown sauce richer and more flavourful (Image: Getty)
Brown sugar contains molasses which adds richness to pasta sauce to enhance the tomatoes’ sweetness without overloading the sauce.
How to improve spaghetti pasta sauce
You will need:
- 450g of ground beef or pork sausage
- 470ml of water or beef broth
- One large onion (chopped)
- One green pepper (chopped)
- Two cloves of garlic (minced)
- Three cans of diced tomatoes
- One tube of tomato paste
- One and a half teaspoons of dried oregano
- One teaspoon of salt
- Half a teaspoon of dried basil
- Half a teaspoon of dried thyme
- One bay leaf
- Two teaspoons of brown sugar
Don’t miss… [EXPERT] [RECIPE]
Brown sugar will ‘cut the natural acidity’ of tomatoes (Image: Getty)
Recipe
To begin, add the meat, onions, green peppers and garlic to a saucepan. Place on the stove and cook until the meat has browned and the vegetables are tender.
Drain off the fat and then stir in the canned tomatoes, tomato paste and brown sugar. Next, season the sauce with oregano, salt, basil, thyme and a bay leaf.
Pour in the water or beef broth. Leave the saucepan uncovered and let the sauce simmer for one and a half hours to two hours.
If you wish, you can leave the sauce to simmer for even longer as it will help improve the flavour.
Ashlyn said: “The more time you allow your sauce to simmer, the richer the flavour will be.
“You can also transfer the sauce to a crockpot after preparing it on the stove and allow it to cook over low heat for a few hours. If your sauce is too thick after cooking, add a little more water to thin it out.”
Once the sauce has simmered for enough time and is thick enough, take the bay leaf out and your mouthwatering spaghetti sauce is ready to serve.