food: Isa's sauce

[substitute]

I am making spaghetti sauce. The recipe is a family one from before my birth, when my parents and big brother were living in Bologna. My brother's nanny, Isa, was a pretty serious cook.

It's a bolognese sauce of course, but I am making it with fake meat, so it's a nolognese, or perhaps spaghetti and neatballs.

The ingredients aren't any surprise: tomato, onion, spices, olive oil. The part I don't see so often is carrot, which is shredded or pureed and added for sweetness. This means that I don't have to add salt or something sweet to cut the acidity.

If I'm doing it for vegans or nondairy folks I omit Isa's last step: a tiny amount of milk at the end.

Comments

something about bitter stuff

[substitute.livejournal.com]

There was a BBQ sauce recipe I liked that started with coffee, too. Bitter is good, bitter is our friend.

Re: something about bitter stuff

[stimps.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm... I have made that sauce. So good! I love interesting BBQ sauces, but I fail to make them often enough. Smack stimpy!

Re: something about bitter stuff

[eris-devotee.livejournal.com]

I've had stew where the meat was marinated in a concentrated coffee glaze (with onion & something vaguely minty... fennel, maybe?).

Re: something about bitter stuff

[hotelsamurai.livejournal.com]

Once I had a BBQ sauce that was too thin and acidic. So, in a flash of inspiration, I gave it some iced tea to velvet it up, and it worked like a charm.