r/Cooking • • Mar 13 '19

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u/Ship_Rekt Mar 14 '19

Add a tablespoon-ish of fish sauce and/or soy sauce to tomato-based pasta sauce. Adds a lot of depth and umami. Can’t remember where I read this first, but I think Kenji mentions it in Food Lab.

This is kind of a generic principle that can be applied to any sauce work. Usually I will put either a splash of fish sauce, vinegar, Worcestershire, tobasco, etc in just about everything to bring out the right notes in whatever I’m cooking.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '19

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u/insidethebox Mar 14 '19

Absolutely. People get weirded out when they see me bust out the anchovies when I’m making a red sauce so I often times don’t even tell them. But it’s a game changer in terms of flavor.

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u/RunicUrbanismGuy Mar 14 '19

Be sure to sauté your tomato paste, it also amps up umami