How To Cook The Perfect Italian Tomato Sauce | MasterChef New Zealand | MasterChef World

Just some points to help home cooks not from Italy. - use only half an onion for this portion size - one and a half garlic gloves is enough, no more unless you are making a larger portion - don’t add the tomato paste, crushed tomatoes are already good enough for this dish - sure olive oil is expensive but the real reason we don’t put olive oil in the pasta water pot is because if you cook the pasta with the olive oil in the water, the tomato sauce will not stick well to the pasta. Do not leave your pasta out, nor put olive oil on it if you’re leaving it out. Cook your sauce then when it’s ready, cook the pasta in salted water, then transfer the pasta into the pan with the sauce. - we usually half cook the pasta in the salted water pot then we add the pasta to the sauce in the hot pan to finish cooking it in the sauce so that the pasta absorbs it, we also add a little bit of the starchy pasta water to the pasta and tomato sauce to help it thinking and to season it with salt, you do not need to put the salt in the sauce like he did - his sauce would be very acidic, to help with acidity, he added the Parmesan and this is why the cheese is added. He added basil as well, and he used it as garnish but I would’ve cooked it in the sauce if you really wanted to use it. I hope this helps you understand why his recipe tasted bad after you tried cooking it at home

I'm italian, born and grow up in Italy from italian parents and I never saw this much onion and garlic in a souce before. :'D

I was married with an Italian lady. As a cook I have never seen a red sauce with so much onion. I usually use tomatoes garlic olive oil and herbs.

“If you cook it without salt, it’s gonna taste like you made it without salt.” Wow I never would’ve thought that! Truly he is living in a Masterchef World.

Me, a portuguese: "That is not how you make it" Me after reading the italian comments: "That is definitely NOT how you make it"

Every Italian on the internet... “ you’re doing it wrong “

I cannot believe nobody is quoting Goodfellas here. “Don’t put too many onions in the sauce!”

I learnt a lot of Italian cooking from a friend's mum from Sicily. I've never seen a sauce with sooooo much onions, soooo little garlic to make such a little sauce. And I'd won't coat my spaghetti with any oil to avoid it sticking as a layer of oil would prevent sauces from sticking into the spaghetti. Get the spaghetti served as soon as its cooked and toss it around to let it cool fast. It won't stick as bad as you'd think.

How to cook the perfect New Zeland onion souce

Mediterranean might run out of salt if this guy keeps cooking

To each their own, My Sicilian grandmother made her sauce with tomato sauce and tomato paste and water, added onion, lots of garlic, celery, salt and pepper, sliced round steak. And then simmered it for at least six hours. She always made more sauce than pasta and the leftovers were mixed and refrigerated to be fried the next day. It simply doesn't get any better than caramelized pasta.

Back in Italy again for xmas, I just showed this video to my aunties who did all the cooking this year. I wish I recorded their reaction, comedy gold. I thought one of them was going to choke from laughing so hard at one point.

i clicked on this video just to read Italians losing it in the comments

Ok guys, lots of things to talk about: 1. When you say the simplest Italian tomato sauce it has to be simple. In Italy we use few ingredients, which are: garlic or onion (or both), tomato sauce, salt and oil. Basil and parmesan are not mandatory, use them if you like them. 2. The principal ingredient of the sauce are tomatoes, if you put too much garlic or onion you will cover the flavor of tomatoes. I'm not saying that you don't have to use them, they are, as he said, the base of the sauce. 3. White onion is delicious, but it is often very intense, red onion instead is more sweet, try it. 4. Garlic is, in my opinion, one of the greatest ingredients in kitchen, BUT you have to use it responsibly. Again, too much garlic will cover the flavor of the tomatoes. When using garlic, first chose a good garlic (the red one if you can find it), then remove the skin, chop it in half, remove also the inner bud (which is the strongest part of the garlic). Then use, for this quantity of sauce, up to two cloves and don't let it burn during the "soffritto". In the end remove the garlic from the sauce before serving. 5. He says something really important and true about the sauce: all the liquid part must evaporate, in the sauce must remain only the flesh of the tomato, because you know that fruit (yes tomatoes are fruits) are made by a huge quantity of water. The more the sauce cook (of course you don't have to burn it) the more it will be concentrated, the more it will be flavored. 6. Speaking about tomato paste: please DO NOT USE IT IN THIS SAUCE because there's no need. It is a huge concentrated tomato sauce and for this recipe we want a gentle taste. This doesn't mean that we don't use tomato paste, whit ragù (the one you called bolognese) we use it, better if it is homemade. 7. Good explanation about the boiling water that has to be salty enough (of course in right way). Adding salt makes two good things: the temperature of a salty boiling water is superior to 100 °C and the pasta will cook better, secondly, as he said, salt add a completely different flavor to the pasta. Believe me, and you will probably know it, pasta with no salt is one of the worst thing to eat. 8. About the use of the oil. First of all try to use good olive oil, even if it is expensive, because it is a crucial ingredient for all recipes. You have to know that in Italy we used to taste oil on a simple bread slice: we produce, depending on different regions, different types of oils, which are the same products, but made with local olives. So olive oils can be very different each other: so choose well. Don't use too much oil (as he did) in the soffritto, otherwise the pasta will be sickening. Instead use it at the end when the gas is off to add the genuine flavor of the oil, also because fried oil, as you know, is more dangerous for health. 9. "When is the pasta cooked?" "Taste it" NO WAY: there's something that you can't bypass while cooking, TIME. It has to considered a proper ingredient for a recipe. When you put the pasta in the pot set the timer to the time indicates on the pasta box then drain it. Overcooked pasta has no texture and it is less digestible. 10. Do not put oil in the pasta water as he said: it is useless. But stir it: 30 sec - 1 min after you put it in, then every 3 min and the last min to be sure it doesn't stick each other and to the pot. 11. If you want the dish to be more amalgamate, so create like a cream, a moist consistency you have to finish to cook it like a risotto. So, one/two minutes before the end of the normal cooking time written on the box, move the pasta directly from the pot to the pan in which there's the sauce (that has to be hot enough because you have to continue cooking the pasta). Whit the gas on, cook the pasta for the remaining time and use the pasta water (full of starch) like a broth for a risotto. Of course be sure that at the end of the time the water that you put inside little by little is evaporated and the consistence of the pasta is moist, but not wet. 12. Please do not serve the pasta before, then add the sauce on top. Even if you drain it at the end of the boiling, put it in the pan of the sauce or in a big container and mix it (if you can't mix it properly you can use a little bit of pasta water, always remember in any case to store it a little). 13. ALWAYS taste what you are going to serve: you can always correct the flavor. 14. Try not to serve the pasta with parmesan, basil, chili flakes... if you are not sure that every one on your table will enjoy it whit those added ingredients. The best will be serve the plain version (only whit the sauce) and then bring to the table those ingredients. 15. REMEMBER a dish doesn't need to bee too seasoned to be flavored: in Italy there are very simple dishes (like this one, pasta al pomodoro) that are amazing. I will never get tired to eat pasta al pomodoro. ENJOY COOKING and good bye to everyone from Italy!

I worked at many Pizza Places. One of them actually made a sauce that grilled onions and oil as the first step just like this, but The amount of onions he is using might make enough sauce to supply the Pizza and Pasta sauce for an entire Lunch shift. The amount of sauce that was made with that much onion was at least 25 times the sauce he made. Grilled onions is amazing in Pasta sauce. Its more about seasoning the oil with the grilled onions or Garlic than having a ton of onions and Garlic in it. I bet his sauce is good. It has a very nice color and texture. A little less onion texture maybe though. That paste is probably huge for this. The Pizza Place owner stressed a type of Pizza Sauce or Puree called Tomato Magic with some other type of Pizza Sauce or Paste. Probably San Marzano

about the salt Calculating that a liter of water is used for every 100 grams of pasta, the latter must be salted at 1%: this means 10 grams of coarse salt, corresponding to approximately one teaspoon per litre. BUT ..... myself for 75-80 gr of pasta, I use 2 liters of spring water and between 7 and 10 grams of salt, I use little salt, and more water that the rule say , (salt increases my hypertension)

Dear Chef McVinnie, On behalf of Italy, not only we are concerned of your concept of 'Italian' cuisine, but we are also really concerned by your blood pressure levels. Yes, pasta water needs to be salty because otherwise pasta won't taste like anything at all. No, NOT that much salt.

Looked at video and was like: "oh, nice" Watched it while reading the comments and ended like: "Italian blood pressure is rising and its not the salt"

Semplicemente Perfetto ! La prima volta che vedo preparare gli spaghetti al pomodoro da uno straniero senza dovermi arrabbiare... Bravissimo !

The Golden rule of cooking is never to add salt until all the ingredients in the particular dish has been fully cooked. For instant cooking and for show purposes these chefs recommend usage of high amount of salt. Less amount of salt usage gives you a healthier lives