A food expert has shared the one ingredient that many Italians never skip when making a homemade tomato pasta sauce from scratch. Creating pasta sauce from scratch might appear time-consuming, but the results always justify the effort. A timeless sauce that every home cook ought to master is tomato sauce, which forms the foundation for numerous pasta dishes.
The Secret Ingredient: Carrots
Learning to perfect a pasta sauce like an Italian is relatively straightforward, but understanding which vegetables to add is crucial. Food writer Candace Nagy recently revealed that there is one essential ingredient that nobody should overlook to achieve a "balanced, flavorful spaghetti sauce". Candace disclosed that there is one specific ingredient that Italians consistently include when preparing a pasta sauce from scratch. Naturally, a tomato sauce contains plenty of onions and garlic, but the crucial ingredient you must not leave out is another vegetable: carrots.
As it happens, carrots are the standout 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 is why it is not surprising that while plenty of tomato sauce recipes begin with garlic and onion, it is the carrot that many Italians never skip.
How to Use Carrots in Pasta Sauce
The optimal way to add carrots into a sauce is to dice them and sauté them together with the likes of onions and celery before introducing the tomatoes to the pan. To infuse the sauce with an extra boost of sweetness, Candace suggests adding a whole peeled carrot, letting it bubble away in the sauce while cooking.
The reason carrots work so brilliantly in tomato sauce is because they help counteract the acidity of the tomatoes, according to chef and cookbook author Domenica Marchetti. While some tomato sauce recipes call for sugar, carrots provide a naturally sweeter option, without making the sauce overly cloying. Carrots also complement fresh herbs like basil, adding 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."
