The kind of espaghettis that have a sauce that sticks onto the pasta, and has olives and onions.
I cant ever duplicate moms recipe. Can anyone share a recipe?
Suggestion, stop using oil in the preparation of the pasta. Boiling in oil water will contribute to the sauce not adhering. If you must have oil, put a little in the sauce itself. Do not rinse your pasta after straining, just return it to the pot sans water.
There are as many Mom's spaghetti sauce recipes as their are Moms. It is my opinion that a classic spaghetti sauce is thick, not runny like tomato sauce. A thick sauce sticks to the starches that coat the pasta after boiling. These starches are what causes the pasta to clump together after about 30 seconds of being drained. Traditionally, pasta sauce is thickened by a lengthy slow simmer to evaporate the excess water. This is known as a reduction. If we are using the Italian style as a baseline, the sauce preparation starts many hours before the 9 - 11 minute pasta boil.
There are two main shortcuts you can employ but keep in mind that neither results in the exact same result as a loving reduction that occurs while watching afternoon soap operas on TV and stirring a sauce. For those who can't stand soap operas or who don't have all afternoon to tend to a slowly bubbling sauce, four - six hours in a crockpot on low can help. Leave a narrow opening between the lid and the crock to allow water vapor to escape.
1) Adding 1 - 2 tbs of corn starch doesn't mess with the flavours much and will thicken the sauce as it simmers. Stir well and often as the sauce becomes thicker.
2) Add a small can or two of tomato
paste one at a time until the desired consistency is achieved. That's about it for shortcuts. Many recipes call for the use of flour, cheese, cream, bread crumbs etc to act as thickening agents, but these tend to change the flavour of the sauce in the end.
A reduction is a slow simmer over time, not a rolling boil. High temps and a fast boil will breakdown the flavours. A small bubble about every five seconds (not a geyser that deposits sauce on the ceiling) is what is called for. Obviously for the water to evaporate, the sauce pot cannot be covered during the simmer. The lid is applied and the heat turned off only after you have reached your desired consistency and are waiting for the pasta to cook.
Bon appetite.
** Required Dominican Content: Dominicans tend to cook the crap out of the pasta rather than concentrate on the sauce which is the single most important part of a complete pasta dish.
:laugh:
