Why Restaurants Marinara Sauce Tastes Better Than Yours

You buy the fancy pasta, follow a recipe and spend an hour over the stove, but your sauce still tastes as usual. However, when you go to a local Italian spot and spot their marinara sauce is rich, velvety and addictive, then you wonder what they are doing that you aren't?

The real fact is that those restaurant chefs aren't magicians. They just use five simple tricks that you can start doing tonight.

Using ‘Fancy’ Tomatoes

Most of us grab the cheapest can on the shelf. Restaurants don't do this. They just use “San Marzano” tomatoes. These are grown in volcanic soil in Italy, making them naturally taste sweeter and less sour. 

You can also do the same thing, all you have to do is to look for “whole peeled” tomatoes. Even the cheapest brands of whole tomatoes are usually better in quality than the ones which are pre-crushed or the ones which are diced ones.

The ‘Fat’ Secret

Have you ever noticed how restaurant sauce looks shiny and smooth? That's because chefs aren't afraid of fat. While we might use a tiny drizzle of oil, a chef uses a generous amount of high quality “extra virgin olive oil.”

Your safest hack on this will be, stirring in a tablespoon of butter right before you serve. It may sound crazy to you, but it cuts the acidity of the tomatoes and makes the sauce taste extremely delicious.

Also Read: Before You Buy Anything, Try These 5 Ways To Refresh Your Home!

Don't Throw Away The ‘Liquid Gold’

When you drain the pasta, do you pour the water down the sink? Stop it, right there! That salty, starchy water is indeed a great weapon. 

You can add a splash of that cloudy pasta water into your sauce. It acts like glue but it actually helps the sauce to get stuck to your noodles instead of puddling at the bottom of the bowl. 

The ‘Umami’ Bomb

If you find yourself pasta tasting “flat,” it's missing the real depth. Restaurants add ingredients that provide a savory punch called “umami.”

At home, by any chance if you have the hard end of a block of “Parmesan cheese,” throw it into the sauce while it simmers. It will melt slowly and add a deep, salty and savory flavor you can't get from a spice jar. What you need to do is to pull the rind out before you eat!

The ‘Low And Slow’ Simmer

At home, we often boil the sauce and serve it immediately. This makes the sauce taste sharp and acidic. Restaurants let their sauce hang out on a low flame. 

If you really want to make your marinara taste like that of a restaurant, let your sauce simmer on the lowest heat for at least 30-45 minutes. This gives the tomatoes time to break down and get naturally sweet. If it's still too sour in taste, you can even add a tiny pinch of sugar to balance it out.