too tangy pasta sauce

[mightyh]

I'm making homemade pasta sauce and it looks pretty good and smells pretty good, but I just tasted it and it tastes too tangy to me.... Not bad (and some might prefer it), but it's not what I was going for tonight. Any ideas of how to salvage it?

[DNCW]

It sounds as though you're tasting the acid from the tomatoes. My suggestion would be to add a little sugar. Hope this helps.:)

[Heidi]

I'm afraid I don't have anything to add about the problem with mightyh's sauce (other than DNCW's great suggestion), but I just wanted to tell DNCW that we are practically neighbors! I live in Draper; we moved here last September after living in Sandy for 10 years. So hello!

[katygirl]

I was also going to suggest sugar. You may also want to pour out a bit of the sauce into a small bowl. Then play with adding spices. You may find one that takes away the tanginess (is that a new word?) then just add more of that same spice to the large quantity of sauce. Hope it comes out Ok!

[cooksrhot]

I add dark brown sugar to my sauce. Also, my friend's Italian grandmother said that when you taste too much acidity, you add a TINY pinch of baking soda-not too much or it will take all of the flavor out of the tomatoes. It really works!

[athena]

A Greek trick is to add a little cinnamon and nutmeg to tomato sauce as well. Not too much - just a pinch should do (too much, and you'll have kampama sauce, minus the allspice....which is not necessarily a *bad* thing, mind you...)

[mightyh]

Thanks for your advice. I was in a hurry when I asked, so I just tried the first suggestion and added some sugar. It did help with the tangy-ness :) The sauce was good.

I've saved the second half of the sauce for freezing and will experiment more with it.

[Jennett]

I know this is too late to help mightyh with dinner, but another trick to sweeten tomato sauce is to add a grated carrot. It really does work, and it adds a little more nutritional value then straight sugar.

[HUNGRY!]

Jennett, that is a great idea! I'm going to write that down!

[DmOrtega]

Red wine cooked in the sauce will also reduce the acid taste of the tomatoes.

[Anne]

I've also heard of adding a bit of baking soda to neutralize some of the acidity in the tomatoes and I really like the idea of that grated carrot. We usually just rely on lots of basil and garlic but it never hurts to try something new.

[Leslie w]

Has anyone else noticed that some canned tomatoes are sweeter than others? I make "Italian gravy" once a week because it's in such demand at my house. I use baking soda (about 1/2 tsp for two 28 oz cans). However always taste it first because sometimes you might not need it. I've noticed even when using the same brand the tomatoes vary in acidity.

[kbucky]

I had to reply to this b/c I lurked on this thread and tried the baking soda solution for our pizza sauce last night and it was PERFECT! Sometimes sugar just doesn't cut it, and I hate to add in extra calories for nothing, but a pinch of baking soda worked like a charm! THANKS :)

[cooksrhot]

Glad that worked!! Italians can't be wrong when it comes to making a good sauce!