7 Simple Hacks to Upgrade Your Spaghetti Sauce

A few minor changes can make a major difference in flavor.

Sunday sauce, spaghetti sauce, gravywhatever you call it, Italian-style tomato-based pasta sauce is a beautiful thing.

That’s OKthere’s no need to make sweeping changes.

A small tweak or two can yield surprising results.

Next time you simmer Sunday sauce, try incorporating one of these methods if you don’t already.

Upgrade Your Tomatoes

The cardinal rule ofmaking spaghetti sauceis to start with good tomatoes.

No matter how good you and your recipe are, great sauce can’t be made from average tomatoes.

This step is one of the most overlooked, and yet one of the easiest to remedy.

When using canned, the long-entrenched wisdom is to look to San Marzano tomatoes from Campania, Italy.

But many tomato wonks now believe that the best California tomatoes have surpassed Italy’s finest.

(That said, sticking with big-name San Marzano brands is still a great starting point.)

Our tomato logic can extend to all other ingredients.

At the heart of Italian cooking lies the tenet that you should use high-quality ingredients and treat them simply.

And like olive oil, garlic and onion aren’t shelf-stable products.

Accounting for this, you should add garlic a good bit later; not long before adding the tomato.

The key is to prevent garlic from browning too much.

Cook your garlic until it becomes a deep golden color, with the earliest brown beginnings.

Then, add your tomatoes.

The minimum time you should simmer sauce is 30 minutes.

Time plus low heat and fresh ingredients make for a great sauce.

This is because, as they cook, these meats leak juices.

Your sauce is ready.

But you aren’t done making it better.

Use a pasta brand that will let the soulfulness of your sauce shine.

If you’re using dry pasta, be sure you buy noodles extruded through bronze dies.

If you want the very best boxed noodles, look for pasta from Gragnano, Italy.

A short but hearty tossing will almost glue sauce to pasta, permeating flavor deep into the hot noodles.

And now, the final steps.

If you’ve made a butter-based sauce, try mixing in a sliver or two of butter.

And finally, be sure you eat your pasta hot, shortly out of the pan.