An old Italian lady once told me not to add the paste until the sauce
is into its last hour of simmering. What difference does this make?
Can't ask her - gone to Big Cucina in the sky. (She made the best
lasagna I have ever eaten.) She let her sauce simmer for at least 3
hours.

val189 wrote:
> An old Italian lady once told me not to add the paste until the sauce
> is into its last hour of simmering.

My old Italian mother does it the other way around. She cooks the paste
*first*, in olive oil, with lots of basil, garlic, and mince onion,
until the paste is almost black. This sweetness means she never adds
sugar to her sauce, even if she starts with tomatoes that are less than
sweet.

> What difference does this make?
> Can't ask her - gone to Big Cucina in the sky. (She made the best
> lasagna I have ever eaten.) She let her sauce simmer for at least 3
> hours.

My mom's sauce simmers for at least half a day, usually a bit longer.
It's to die for, seriously.

Serene

--
"I am an agnostic only to the extent that I am agnostic about fairies at
the bottom of the garden." -- Richard Dawkins

On Mon, 1 Sep 2008 12:00:46 -0700 (PDT), val189
> wrote:

>An old Italian lady once told me not to add the paste until the sauce
>is into its last hour of simmering. What difference does this make?
>Can't ask her - gone to Big Cucina in the sky. (She made the best
>lasagna I have ever eaten.) She let her sauce simmer for at least 3
>hours.

Just a guesstimate...

Probably because sauce reduces as it simmers and you won't know how
much paste to add until the end. Also, the paste might "brighten" the
tomato flavor after such long cooking, so you wouldn't want to cook
out more tomato flavor.


--
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.

Mae West

> On Mon, 1 Sep 2008 12:00:46 -0700 (PDT), val189
> > wrote:
>
>> An old Italian lady once told me not to add the paste until the sauce
>> is into its last hour of simmering. What difference does this make?
>> Can't ask her - gone to Big Cucina in the sky. (She made the best
>> lasagna I have ever eaten.) She let her sauce simmer for at least 3
>> hours.
>
> Just a guesstimate...
>
> Probably because sauce reduces as it simmers and you won't know how
> much paste to add until the end. Also, the paste might "brighten" the
> tomato flavor after such long cooking, so you wouldn't want to cook
> out more tomato flavor.

I don't know why I find this memory amusing. Tomato paste is pretty bland.
It might be "bright" if used in moderation...

Nearly 30 years ago I invited a female friend over to dinner with Mom's
blessing (I still lived with my parents then). This friend was from an
Italian family. Why my mother chose that day to make red gravy (or sauce or
whatever you call it) that day is beyond me.

Mom never claimed she was a good cook; she's never liked to cook. But she
usually made a pretty good red gravy using canned tomatoes with a little
tomato paste and some onion, celery, bell peppers. This particular day, Mom
didn't have enough canned tomatoes but she had oodles and boodles of (6 oz.
cans) of tomato paste. So she didn't go to the store for more canned
tomatoes. The "sauce" she served was mostly comprised of tomato with paste.
My friend had the good grace to proclaim it delicious. Every dinner guest
should have manners like that! It was horrible.

Jill

On Sep 1, 4:09 pm, "jmcquown" > wrote:
> > On Mon, 1 Sep 2008 12:00:46 -0700 (PDT), val189
> > > wrote:
>
> >> An old Italian lady once told me not to add the paste until the sauce
> >> is into its last hour of simmering. What difference does this make?
> >> Can't ask her - gone to Big Cucina in the sky. (She made the best
> >> lasagna I have ever eaten.) She let her sauce simmer for at least 3
> >> hours.
>
> > Just a guesstimate...
>
> > Probably because sauce reduces as it simmers and you won't know how
> > much paste to add until the end. Also, the paste might "brighten" the
> > tomato flavor after such long cooking, so you wouldn't want to cook
> > out more tomato flavor.
>
> I don't know why I find this memory amusing. Tomato paste is pretty bland.
> It might be "bright" if used in moderation...
>
> Nearly 30 years ago I invited a female friend over to dinner with Mom's
> blessing (I still lived with my parents then). This friend was from an
> Italian family. Why my mother chose that day to make red gravy (or sauce or
> whatever you call it) that day is beyond me.
>
> Mom never claimed she was a good cook; she's never liked to cook. But she
> usually made a pretty good red gravy using canned tomatoes with a little
> tomato paste and some onion, celery, bell peppers. This particular day, Mom
> didn't have enough canned tomatoes but she had oodles and boodles of (6 oz.
> cans) of tomato paste. So she didn't go to the store for more canned
> tomatoes. The "sauce" she served was mostly comprised of tomato with paste.
> My friend had the good grace to proclaim it delicious. Every dinner guest
> should have manners like that! It was horrible.
>
> Jill

Knew a girl whose mother merely added water to ketchup and dumped it
over the spaghet. A real cook's cook, huh?

"val189" > wrote in message
...
> On Sep 1, 4:09 pm, "jmcquown" > wrote:
>> > On Mon, 1 Sep 2008 12:00:46 -0700 (PDT), val189
>> > > wrote:
>>
>> >> An old Italian lady once told me not to add the paste until the sauce
>> >> is into its last hour of simmering. What difference does this make?
>> >> Can't ask her - gone to Big Cucina in the sky. (She made the best
>> >> lasagna I have ever eaten.) She let her sauce simmer for at least 3
>> >> hours.
>>
>> > Just a guesstimate...
>>
>> > Probably because sauce reduces as it simmers and you won't know how
>> > much paste to add until the end. Also, the paste might "brighten" the
>> > tomato flavor after such long cooking, so you wouldn't want to cook
>> > out more tomato flavor.
>>
>> I don't know why I find this memory amusing. Tomato paste is pretty
>> bland.
>> It might be "bright" if used in moderation...
>>
>> Nearly 30 years ago I invited a female friend over to dinner with Mom's
>> blessing (I still lived with my parents then). This friend was from an
>> Italian family. Why my mother chose that day to make red gravy (or sauce
>> or
>> whatever you call it) that day is beyond me.
>>
>> Mom never claimed she was a good cook; she's never liked to cook. But
>> she
>> usually made a pretty good red gravy using canned tomatoes with a little
>> tomato paste and some onion, celery, bell peppers. This particular day,
>> Mom
>> didn't have enough canned tomatoes but she had oodles and boodles of (6
>> oz.
>> cans) of tomato paste. So she didn't go to the store for more canned
>> tomatoes. The "sauce" she served was mostly comprised of tomato with
>> paste.
>> My friend had the good grace to proclaim it delicious. Every dinner
>> guest
>> should have manners like that! It was horrible.
>>
>> Jill
>
> Knew a girl whose mother merely added water to ketchup and dumped it
> over the spaghet. A real cook's cook, huh?


My Grandmother on my Father's side used to do the same thing. "Al dente"
was definitely not in her vocabulary either.

What a great chef she was. She'd fry fish in a cast iron skillet and then
pop popcorn later in the same oil. YUM!

Ack. I must stop now, I just ate.


TFM®

val189 wrote:
> An old Italian lady once told me not to add the paste until the sauce
> is into its last hour of simmering. What difference does this make?
> Can't ask her - gone to Big Cucina in the sky. (She made the best
> lasagna I have ever eaten.) She let her sauce simmer for at least 3
> hours.

Val, I got your email about this thread, but my reply to you bounced.

Serene

--
"I am an agnostic only to the extent that I am agnostic about fairies at
the bottom of the garden." -- Richard Dawkins

TFM® wrote:

> What a great chef she was. She'd fry fish in a cast iron skillet and
> then pop popcorn later in the same oil. YUM!
>
> Ack. I must stop now, I just ate.
>
>
> TFM®

Gadzooks. I wonder if she had lost her sense of taste and/or smell?

I always wonder how much pleasure people lose in eating when they lost
their sense of smell? It seems obvious that if would affect one's
pleasure in eating yet unless experienced, I certainly can't imagine?

On Mon, 01 Sep 2008 19:54:17 -0400, Goomba >
wrote:

>I always wonder how much pleasure people lose in eating when they lost
>their sense of smell?

I know someone who doesn't have a sense of smell. She eats to live,
but she can turn out some good food when the occasion arises. She
follows the recipes fairly closely too.

>It seems obvious that if would affect one's
>pleasure in eating yet unless experienced, I certainly can't imagine?

There's really no pleasure in eating, it's about the comradery when
there's company for dinner.


--
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.

Mae West

Serene Vannoy wrote:
> val189 wrote:
>> An old Italian lady once told me not to add the paste until the sauce
>> is into its last hour of simmering.
>
> My old Italian mother does it the other way around. She cooks the paste
> *first*, in olive oil, with lots of basil, garlic, and mince onion,
> until the paste is almost black. This sweetness means she never adds
> sugar to her sauce, even if she starts with tomatoes that are less than
> sweet.

Serene, this is how I was taught to make gravy by the Sicilianas in my
neighborhood. They called it "frying off the paste" and it was done like
your mother showed you sans the basil. I was taught to put the basil
into the pot just as the sauce was coming to the first bubble, before
you turned it down.

I was also taught to put oregano in at the end because it makes the
sauce bitter if you cook the oregano too long.

My gravy sat on the stove for at least 6 hours at a low temp so it
didn't boil.

--
Janet Wilder
Bad spelling. Bad punctuation
Good Friends. Good Life

"sf" wrote

> There's really no pleasure in eating, it's about the comradery when
> there's company for dinner.


I can't believe I just read that.

You must be a terrible cook.


TFM®

Janet Wilder wrote:
> Serene Vannoy wrote:
>> val189 wrote:
>>> An old Italian lady once told me not to add the paste until the sauce
>>> is into its last hour of simmering.
>>
>> My old Italian mother does it the other way around. She cooks the
>> paste *first*, in olive oil, with lots of basil, garlic, and mince
>> onion, until the paste is almost black. This sweetness means she
>> never adds sugar to her sauce, even if she starts with tomatoes that
>> are less than sweet.
>
> Serene, this is how I was taught to make gravy by the Sicilianas in my
> neighborhood. They called it "frying off the paste" and it was done like
> your mother showed you sans the basil. I was taught to put the basil
> into the pot just as the sauce was coming to the first bubble, before
> you turned it down.
>
> I was also taught to put oregano in at the end because it makes the
> sauce bitter if you cook the oregano too long.

There's no oregano in my mother's sauce. She laughed at the mere idea.
:-) "Sweet basil, not oregano! I raised you better than that." ;-)

>
> My gravy sat on the stove for at least 6 hours at a low temp so it
> didn't boil.

Right, low temperature, either from morning until night, or overnight if
I'm making lasagna the next day.

Serene

--
"I am an agnostic only to the extent that I am agnostic about fairies at
the bottom of the garden." -- Richard Dawkins

In article
>,
val189 > wrote:

> An old Italian lady once told me not to add the paste until the sauce
> is into its last hour of simmering. What difference does this make?
> Can't ask her - gone to Big Cucina in the sky. (She made the best
> lasagna I have ever eaten.) She let her sauce simmer for at least 3
> hours.

Tomato paste burns easily due to its high sugar content. Adding it to
the sauce near the end of the cooking helps avoid it sinking to the
bottom of the pot and burning.

On Mon, 1 Sep 2008 20:38:44 -0400, TFM® >
wrote:

>
>
>"sf" wrote
>
>> There's really no pleasure in eating, it's about the comradery when
>> there's company for dinner.
>
>
>I can't believe I just read that.
>
>You must be a terrible cook.
>
TFM... WAKE UP! I was talking about my friend with no sense of smell.


--
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.

Mae West

val189 wrote:
> On Sep 1, 4:09 pm, "jmcquown" > wrote:
>>> On Mon, 1 Sep 2008 12:00:46 -0700 (PDT), val189
>>> > wrote:
>>
>>>> An old Italian lady once told me not to add the paste until the
>>>> sauce is into its last hour of simmering. What difference does
>>>> this make? Can't ask her - gone to Big Cucina in the sky. (She
>>>> made the best lasagna I have ever eaten.) She let her sauce simmer
>>>> for at least 3 hours.
>>
>>> Just a guesstimate...
>>
>>> Probably because sauce reduces as it simmers and you won't know how
>>> much paste to add until the end. Also, the paste might "brighten"
>>> the tomato flavor after such long cooking, so you wouldn't want to
>>> cook out more tomato flavor.
>>
>> I don't know why I find this memory amusing. Tomato paste is pretty
>> bland. It might be "bright" if used in moderation...
>>
>> Nearly 30 years ago I invited a female friend over to dinner with
>> Mom's blessing (I still lived with my parents then). This friend
>> was from an Italian family. Why my mother chose that day to make
>> red gravy (or sauce or whatever you call it) that day is beyond me.
>>
>> Mom never claimed she was a good cook; she's never liked to cook.
>> But she usually made a pretty good red gravy using canned tomatoes
>> with a little tomato paste and some onion, celery, bell peppers.
>> This particular day, Mom didn't have enough canned tomatoes but she
>> had oodles and boodles of (6 oz. cans) of tomato paste. So she
>> didn't go to the store for more canned tomatoes. The "sauce" she
>> served was mostly comprised of tomato with paste. My friend had the
>> good grace to proclaim it delicious. Every dinner guest should have
>> manners like that! It was horrible.
>>
>> Jill
>
> Knew a girl whose mother merely added water to ketchup and dumped it
> over the spaghet. A real cook's cook, huh?

I thought only college kids and starving artists did that

Jill

On Sep 1, 10:02 pm, Stan Horwitz > wrote:

> Tomatopasteburns easily due to its high sugar content. Adding it to
> thesaucenear the end of the cooking helps avoid it sinking to the
> bottom of the pot and burning.

Thanks for the scientific sounding answer.