This time,
I introduce my research of all effort and the recipe of tomato sauce. First of all, let me explain to you how versatile tomato sauce is.
Tomato sauce can be used as a seasoning itself but can also be used for many dishes such as meat sauce, demiglas sauce, pizza sauce, ketchup, pescator, vongole rosso, minestrone, doria, lasagna or gratin.
Home-aloner alway thinks “if I’m gonna cook, I want to eat delicious thing!” If you can make very delicious tomato sauce, then all the other dishes using tomato sauce will be very delicious.
Since I realized that “if I have a delicious tomato sauce, I can eat various delicious dishes”, I continued try and error for research like once I did for seesoned boiled egg.
cheap-delicious.hatenablog.com
“I’m gonna make the best tomato sauce!!”
After that, I tried all possible ways to make the taste better such as the amount of onion to mix with canned whole tomato, how to cut garlic, amount of seasoning etc.
“Sweetness” is one of the factor of deliciousness of tomato sauce.
In order to realize this sweetness, I changed the amount of onion over and over.
I even put two whole onions in one canned whole tomato because I’ve heard that “the more onion there are, the sweeter and more delicious it becomes!”.
However, actually it was contrary.
The sweetness of onion counteracted to the acidity of tomato and it became bitterness rather than sweetness.
I was completely lost with this result of pursuing sweetness counteracting against acidity of tomato. To tell the truth, I predicted that simply strengthening the sweetness will result to delicious tomato sauce.
Since my presumption turned out to be wrong, I had to control the amount of onion little by little. Reduce a little to 1.5. Then 1...7/8.... And after all these try and error, I found out the best ratio of canned whole tomato and onion.
However, even though I figured out the best amount of onion, all I fest was the strangeness that something was missing.
Tomato sauce is a tomato based simple sauce. So the best balance of tomato and onion did a good job.
“It surely is good. But something is not right...”
It was difficult to find out what it was. In order to find out what is missing, I had no other way but to taste again and again.
The conclusion I found out was that it definitely lacked the thickness, the depth of taste.
I tried various seasoning and ingredients without satisfaction. Milk...no.
Butter... not this. Ketchup....not this. Worcester sauce... no. Beef fat....no... not this.... Even though I found something close, I said to myself that I have to find the exact ingredient and continued research.
And after many trials, I finally completed this recipe.
Here is the recipe of tomato sauce, the result of my obsessiveness. I’ve referred to it a little on upper post. I actually used this in this pizza recipe too.
Ingredient/cost
1. Canned whole tomato 1 100 JPY
I wanted to make this recipe versatile and accessible to everyone so I used general canned whole tomato)
2. Garlic 1 clove 40 JPY
3. Onion 39g (about ¼) 5 JPY
A. Olive Oil 3 Tbsp
B. Powdered cheese 2 Tbsp
C. Salt, Pepper 2 Tsp
Total 145 JPY
I want to start by telling you the 2 secrets to make delicious tomato sauce.
Point 1!
Recommended ratio of canned whole tomato and onion is 1 can : 39g (about ¼)
¼ of normal onion you can find in supermarket is about 39g so if you don’t want to weigh, just cut into 4 pieces and use one. (In above photo, the weight of the container is subtracted)
By keeping the above ratio, acidity of tomato and sweetness of onion will keep perfect balance and realize gentle taste.
If you put too much onion, it won’t taste good.
Too much onion results in onion’s sweetness counteracting to the acidity of tomato and it becomes bitterness rather than sweetness.
The collapse of the balance of acidity and sweetness occurs by the ratio of onion to canned whole tomato.
By keeping the ratio to 1 canned whole tomato (400g):39g of onion, you can make delicious tomato sauce with tomato’s acidity and onion’s sweetness!
Point 2!
Use powdered cheese to give deep taste!
By using powdered cheese, you can realize deep taste which can’t be achieved only with tomato and onion. Powdered cheese deepens the well-balanced taste of onion’s sweetness and tomato’s acidity.
(It’s still good without powdered cheese but you feel like something is missing)
How to make
1. Chop onion and garlic
I realized through my research that garlic changes its intensity of smell by its cut.Please refer to the following chart for the change by the cut.
① 1 clove
② a half clove
③ cut vertically
④ cut horizontally
⑤ shredded
⑥ chopped
⑦ grated
This time, I use chopped garlic as ⑥ to get roasted smell.
2. Put olive oil and garlic in pan and heat for about 15 minutes on low heat
By tilting the pan while heating, roasted garlic smell and olive oil mix well (you don’t need to tilt all the time)
3. Add onion and heat 15 minutes on low heat
Though I said heat 15 minutes, you can just spread thinly like the photo and leave it for 15 minutes.
On low heat, there is no worry of burning.
By the way, I believed that raw onion is pungent and it becomes sweeter by heat. However, I learned that raw onion is already sweet. It’s just that its pungent component is so strong that we can’t taste its sweetness. By the heat, pungent component decreases and we can taste the sweetness. (I learned it through my research)
4. Add canned whole tomato, 1 tbsp of powdered cheese and simmer on medium heat.
Put the half of powdered cheese I mentioned in the second point.
By adding cheese in the process of simmering tomato, it gives deepness to the taste that can’t be achieved only with onion and tomato.
5. Once tomato bubbles, stop heating and leave it for 20 minutes.
As soon as tomato bubbles, stop heating immediately. If you overcook, tomato will loose its acidity and the balance with onion’s sweetness collapses.
Also by leaving for a while, components of vegetable such as carbohydrates, proteins and amino acid intervene and create unique “depth” to taste.
6. Add another tbsp of powdered cheese, salt and pepper and adjust the seasoning
Adding cheese in two steps gives deeper taste rather than putting in at once in process 4. I couldn’t figure out why it tastes better but I tried a lot of time and found out so I’m quite certain about this.
Postscript
As you can see, the secret of delicious tomato sauce is the balance of tomato’s acidity and onion’s sweetness and the deep taste!
It’s a versatile tomato sauce that makes any dish delicious so please try!!
It’s perfect for pasta!!
Also for Pizza!!
Tomato sauce power incident
To tell the truth, I’m kind of a person who can spend more than 10 days happily only by one happy happening. During this high period, I’m excited and I clean up or do laundry in high speed.
This tomato sauce recipe was so hard to figure out like that of seasoned boiled egg so of course, I was so happy and excited when I finished the recipe. And with the mysterious excitement what so ever, I let my self do a project. It was such an stupid project of “making an application with tomato as its main character”.
Anyway, driven by the tomato power, I made this application.
The name of the main character is “Toma-inu san!”.
It actually is a tomato fairy. And as a hidden ambition, it’s aiming to become the Yuru-kyara of the tomato industry. What a foxy character. There are 2 applications of this character.
The first one is this
Toma-inu san!
Google play Toma-inu san! Hyper difficult side scroll game
Toma-inu san! Hyper difficult side scroll game
Toma-inu san will proceed on real banana, pan or chili pepper. Despite it look, it’s a very difficult game.
Despite it look, it’s a very difficult game. There are more than 10 variation of ending which change by the distance you proceeded!
f you play all, you will be Toma-inu rate 100% but since it’s really difficult, I think no one gonna try. If you got it, please let me know.
Here is the second application
Toma-inu san’s Kitchen Timer
This is a kitchen timer with simple function. Though it’s not necessary, it can count up to 99 hours (4 days) if battery lasts.
Every time you finish using timer, Toma-inu san will tell you some trivial that makes your life rich.
So this is the tomato sauce incident. How foxy this character is. Please be careful not to be fooled by Toma-inu san!!
※※※These are the applications a home-aloner made with excitement of completing tomato sauce recipe so please do not expect a lot.
Anyway, please try this well-balanced tomato sauce of acidity and sweetness, I’m confident!!
