Pasta with basic tomato sauce is a weekly - sometimes nightly - occurrence in our house. To keep things interesting, we'll finish it off with...well, whatever we have in the fridge! Here are a few of our favorite finishing touches for a simple bowl of pasta.
We use these to finish a tomato sauce all the time, but they can work well with just about any sauce you're making, or even become the sauce itself. Cheese and dairy give sauces creaminess while butter and oil give them richness. You also don't need to use a lot - these are just for finishing and rounding out the flavors in a sauce.
1. Whole Milk or Heavy Cream - Add a splash and let the sauce simmer for a few minutes to thicken
2. Hard Cheeses - A half cup of parmesan, pecorino, or other hard cheese will add a deep savory note to the sauce.
3. Fresh Cheese - Try a scoop of ricotta or even creme fraiche to add richness. Brie or mascarpone can also be interesting in pasta!
4. Cream Cheese - Got some cream cheese leftover from your weekend bagels? Mix it into your pasta sauce!
5. Extra-Virgin Olive Oil - Drizzle just a little of your best olive oil over the pasta before serving and you'll be amazed at how much flavor it adds.
6. Flavored Olive Oils - Flavored oils that you make yourself do double duty, adding both a silky mouthfeel and extra spices.
7. Butter - As you might imagine, a simple pat of butter, especially fresh high-quality butter, makes even the simplest sauce taste decadent.
8. Pasta Water - Scoop out some of the cooking water just before draining out the pasta. A few tablespoons of this starchy liquid is a low-calorie way of adding creaminess to any sauce.
What other last-minute additions do you put in your pasta sauces?
Related: Weeknight Meal Tip: Ways to Doctor Jarred Tomato Sauce for More Flavor
(Image: Flickr member The Bitten Word licensed under Creative Commons)
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i like a splash of balsamic vinegar or a spoonful of trader joe's roasted red pepper tapenade!
Wine.
- anchovies
- capers
- left over herbs hanging out in the crisper
- red pepper flakes
Yes, good suggestions. The pasta water one that I use almost every time I prepare pasta.
A beaten egg with the pasta water tempered in also is a nice addition. Sort of a quickie alla carbonara...
Vinegar -- balsamic, red wine, white wine
Pasta cooking water
Fresh lemon juice
Pinch or two of sugar
Macadamia nuts, lemmon zest and salt, pulsed in the food processor until crumbly, spinkled on top of the finished dish. It sounds strange, but try it. It's delicious- the texture of the crumbled nuts is do delicious with the pasta.
One of my very favorite things to do is buy a good quality store bought pasta and swish some red wine around in the empty jar, then dump it in. It gets every last drop of sauce out, and ads a delicious depth of flavor to the sauce. Finally, I will let it simmer for at least 1/2 an hour, and add a few tablespoons of goat cheese to finish it off. A delish, decadent, and ritzy sauce :-)
A touch of Ranch dressing.
Pine nuts and cherry tomatoes.
Half a teaspoon of sugar to counteract the acidity and a slosh of milk. Wine if there's any open.
minced black olives or artichoke hearts :)
For those of you adding sugar: try honey.
I add 1.5 teaspoons of honey to a 28oz can of tomatoes when I make my pasta sauce (I make a lot and freeze it). It's better than adding sugar because it doesn't taste like you've added sugar, yet it cuts the acidity nicely!
Eggs!
A great big handful of chopped flat-leaf parsley!
My favorites, lately:
Ricotta
Roasted pine nuts or walnuts
Cream or milk
Lemon zest! It obviously doesn't work with all pasta sauces, but it's especially great with a red sauce.
1 jar of marinara
1 box of soft tofu
mix in blender to create a delish cream sauce!
For those looking to nix the acidity, add a carrot to your sauce while it's simmering. It'll absorb the tomato acid naturally.
My favourites: unsalted butter, a glug of cabernet sauvignon, balsamic vinegar, goat cheese.
I would like the recipe for whatever it is in that picture! I know I'd love it!
Please and thank you!
Egg! One egg, tempered with a little sauce, then slowly poured into the sauce while stirring. Makes the sauce thick, rich, and a little pink.
well, i know this is going to sound very unusual to a lot of folks but from my puerto rican mom i learned that in puerto rico pasta w/ red sauce is usually served with a side of fried ripe plantains or better yet baby bananas (which are much higher in sugar content and caramelize beautifully when fried). it's really good together!!!
i know this isn't technically a way to finish a sauce, but it's a great complement to the red sauce and a delicious new thing to try.
I have definitely done sugar, honey, cream, butter, olive oil, and any and all kinds of cheese! (Not all these things at once, of course, heh.)
I've found that another good way to counteract the acidity of the tomatoes is to add a bit of grated carrot before you simmer your sauce. I always add grated carrot to my bolognese.
I like to add toasted sunflower seeds. Adds bite, flavour, and protein.
I sometimes add a bit of vodka to tomato-based sauces.
roasted red peppers (out of the jar, cut into small pieces), baby bella mushrooms, shredded zuchinni, halved cherry tomatoes, etc. I like to put as many vegetables as I have/can as a good way to sneak them into my diet. Also, you can eat a lot less pasta and feel full when you have a lot of vegetables filling your stomach.
Also I top with a low-fat feta cheese. It's melts to a really creamy finish and is really low in fat for a cheese.
I always add a diced carrot to my onions before pouring in the tomatoes. My sauce then simmers for at least 20 minutes with a bay leaf to round up the taste. Carrots are sweet enough to counteract any acidity from the tomatoes while the bay leaf adds depth in a very subtle way.
Finishings: a handful of basil leaves torn by hand; some diced pancetta or bacon (sauteed with the onions and degreased with a splash of wine or balsamic vinegar); some anchovy paste and maybe a can of oil-packed tuna, well drained; and my all-time favorite, white bread crumbs toasted in a very little oil and tossed over, in place of grated Parmigiano.