This Nonna-Approved Secret Saves My Tomato Sauce Every Time
If you’ve ever tasted a spoonful of marinara and instantly puckered, this article is for you. Any great tomato sauce needs a little acidity for balance, but sometimes that acidity can take over and overwhelm the tomato’s sweetness. Our first instinct might be to throw a spoonful of sugar into the pot, but does that really work?
As with most cooking conundrums, there are many possible solutions here, each one with its own set of pros and cons. And since Italian red sauce is involved, naturally there’s no shortage of strong opinions on the topic.
I took a deep dive into the science of it all, and I also consulted Delish Assistant Food Editor Francesca Zani, our resident pasta queen and Italian food expert. Here’s everything you need to know about removing acidity from your tomato sauce.
You Could Add Sugar
At first, this seems like a no-brainer: sugar enhances the sweetness of the tomatoes, which will help to combat sourness, right? Well, not exactly.
See, how acidic the sauce tastes is directly related to the pH level of the sauce. A low pH means it will taste more acidic, while a higher pH means it will taste less acidic. And sugar does absolutely nothing to change that. Instead, as Zani says, it “puts a band-aid on it” by distracting your palate from the acidity with the extra sugar. But underneath all that extra sweetness, the sour ping will still be just as present.
You Could Also Add Baking Soda
From a purely scientific point of view, this solution makes the most sense. Baking soda has a basic PH—in fact, we often use it to balance acidic ingredients such as buttermilk, cocoa, or brown sugar in baking—so using it here seems totally plausible. The baking soda raises the pH level of the sauce, neutralizing the acidity, and resulting in a sauce that tastes less acidic to us.
As effective as this method can be, it also comes with a warning: if you add too much baking soda, the sauce will turn bitter. Which, honestly, might be worse than a sauce that’s too acidic.
There's Always Butter
Finishing sauces with a little fat is nothing new, but in this case mounting your tomato sauce with specifically butter can actually help balance the acidity. Why specifically butter? The dairy proteins in the butter bind some of the acidic molecules, effectively canceling them out. In addition, the extra fat coating your tongue can also help by blocking some of our taste receptors that might perceive that extra tang.
But this solution also has its drawbacks. Add too much fat, and you risk muting the overall flavor of the sauce. Also, if you’re lactose intolerant, allergic to dairy, or avoiding it for a dietary reason, this solution is obviously a no-go.
But You Should Really Use A Carrot
This last solution might seem like a wild card, but it’s actually Zani’s preferred method. “Grandma Zani used to put carrots in her sauce...to get the acid out,” she shares. “Just add your little knob of carrot in, let it [simmer] for a while, and then remove it when you’re ready to eat.”
Zani’s grandma may not have given a scientific explanation, but there definitely is one: carrots are an alkaline-rich vegetable with a high pH, so introducing them to the sauce helps to bring up the pH of the sauce similarly to the way baking soda would- but with the added perk of the carrot’s natural sweetness and without the danger of turning the sauce bitter. If you want to get the full benefit of the carrot’s sweetness—and don’t mind leaving it in the sauce permanently—you can chop it finely or grate it so it melts into the sauce. Or, if you want to follow in Grandma Zani’s footsteps, choose the simplest route: Simply peel the carrot and throw it whole into the pot to simmer with the sauce. You can fish it out before serving.
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