Pasta sauce will be 'flavourful' every time if you add one ingredient Italians love. Don't skip out on one simple vegetable that Italians love when making pasta sauce from scratch.
Why Carrots Are Essential in Tomato Sauce
Making pasta sauce from scratch may seem laborious and time consuming, but the end results are always worth it. A classic sauce that every home cook should know how to whip up is tomato sauce, which can serve as a base for a number of pasta dishes. Knowing how to master a pasta sauce like an Italian is fairly simple, but knowing which vegetables to include is the key.
Food writer Candace Nagy recently shared that there's one key ingredient that no one should be skipping to help create a "balanced, flavorful spaghetti sauce". Candace revealed there's one particular ingredient that Italians never overlook when making a pasta sauce from scratch.
It turns out that carrots are the star ingredient of any tomato sauce. Candace wrote for Simply Recipes: "From her, I learned how to properly cook pasta and make a soffritto, the classic base of diced onion, celery, and carrot used in pasta sauces. That's why it's not surprising that while plenty of tomato sauce recipes begin with garlic and onion, it's the carrot that many Italians never skip."
How to Incorporate Carrots
The best way to incorporate carrots into a sauce is to chop them up and sautee them alongside the likes of onions and celery before the tomatoes hit the pan. To give the sauce a burst of even more sweetness, Candace recommends tossing in a whole peeled carrot, allowing it to simmer in the sauce when cooking.
The reason carrots work so well in tomato sauce is because it helps balance out the acidity of the tomatoes, explained chef and cookbook author Domenica Marchetti. While some tomato sauce recipes include sugar, carrots can offer a natural sweeter alternative, without the sauce becoming too sickly.
Carrots also work in tandem with fresh herbs like basil, to add a "sweet licorice flavor and aroma" to the sauce. Candace wrote: "I sometimes chop it up and stir it back into the sauce for extra flavor and texture, or place it on top when serving the pasta family-style. I love the rustic look, and—as terrible as it sounds—it's always a little fun to see who grabs it first."
