Is it possible to mimic real Italian tomato sauce?
The tomato sauce in Italy is different! It has a fresher and cleaner taste than the stuff we have here. The reason, I am convinced, is that we often use quite a bit of tomato paste in our recipes and the Italians either use less or none at all. Italian tomatoes have the benefit of ripening outside in the sizzling Italian sunshine. It makes such a difference to the flavour of the tomato. So intense is their flavour that they don’t need bolstering with tomato concentrate the way wishy-washy tomatoes do. Tomato purée is what gives that ‘pizza’ flavour to commercial tomato sauces. I rarely use it in my cooking. You can make an Italian tasting tomato sauce by using fresh tomatoes that have bags of flavour by simply leaving out the purée. If you cannot get really flavoursome tomatoes then try this: cut the tomatoes in half and put them in a baking dish. Sprinkle them with olive oil, salt, pepper and some dried oregano. Now roast them in a hot oven till their skins have started to blacken. Pe
