# Homemade Pasta Sauce



## shadowscape (May 22, 2013)

I made a quick recipe.  I enjoy it but it can be better.

Can I have some constructive criticism and suggestions

1 cup tomato marinara sauce
1/4 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup red wine
4 tablespoon parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon black pepper


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## jennyema (May 22, 2013)

Cream cheese?  

Also how are you making it?  

I might consider adding some really good olive oil but not both oil and butter.


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## Steve Kroll (May 22, 2013)

First, welcome to DC! 

I don't mean any offense, but by including a "cup of tomato marinara sauce", you sort of lose the "homemade" element. I've also never heard of adding cream cheese to a pasta sauce, but I'm sure it would taste good.

There are a thousand recipes out there for a quick pasta sauce. Here's one I throw together from pantry ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup wine (red or white doesn't matter; I use leftovers.)
1 14 oz can crushed tomatoes, or 5-6 roma tomatoes, rough chopped
2-3 fresh basil leaves, sliced in a fine chiffonade
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
a pinch of sugar (if you are using fresh tomatoes, you can omit)
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Saute the onion in the olive oil until softened. Add the garlic and saute for another minute. Don't let it burn.
Add the wine and let most of the alcohol evaporate off.
Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
Toss with your favorite pasta.


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## pacanis (May 22, 2013)

Cream cheese... interesting.
When I was a little tyke I remember a lot of Friday night dinners with my uncle and aunt. Two items always on the menu were fried perch and tiny shells. The shells always had this smooth tomato sauce that was slightly orange in color, like the color of tomato soup with cream added. You have me wondering here if they added cream cheese to whatever sauce they whipped up, or even simply cream. And the taste was quite unique, too. Not like the spaghetti sauce I was used to.

This needs to be experimented with. Thanks for the idea.


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## buckytom (May 23, 2013)

i'm going to have to try that cream cheese thing. sounds like it might be good in a tomato/alfredo sauce.

i've tried the butter and olive oil combo with good results. butter to sweat onions before going in the sauce, and good extra virgin olive oil at the end to finish. you get the best of both worlds. 

but yeah, i agree with steve about calling it homemade if you didn't start with fresh or canned tomatoes. you would more accurately call it doctored marinara sauce, imo.

thanks for the idea, though, s-scape.


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## scotty71 (May 23, 2013)

Steve's sauce sound Italian to me  but I never heard of sauce with cream cheese or using pre made sauce in a home made one????


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## justplainbill (May 23, 2013)

The addition of a little (~20% by volume) cream cheese or ricotta can enhance pesto genovese.


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## Luca Lazzari (May 23, 2013)

justplainbill said:


> The addition of a little (~20% by volume) cream cheese or ricotta can enhance pesto genovese.



ARGH
You cannot tell things like this Justplainbill, with Italian gluttons lurking around... Cream cheese in the pesto, what a blasphemy 

I'm joking obviously, maybe I'll try this option with my next pesto. By cream cheese do you mean, for example, a good old Philadelphia Kraft cheese?

shadowscape, me too I would drop the butter and go only for olive oil, good quality.


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## GotGarlic (May 23, 2013)

Lol lurking Luca


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## justplainbill (May 23, 2013)

Luca Lazzari said:


> ARGH
> You cannot tell things like this Justplainbill, with Italian gluttons lurking around... Cream cheese in the pesto, what a blasphemy
> 
> I'm joking obviously, maybe I'll try this option with my next pesto. By cream cheese do you mean, for example, a good old Philadelphia Kraft cheese?
> ...


Good to hear from you Luca.  Used to eat that concoction a lot when I frequented the Pisa - Livorno area.  Kraft's Philadelphia works fine and a dry ricotta is also ok.


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## menumaker (May 23, 2013)

Hello and first of all, welcome aboard,
  I would go with either a creamy ( maybe mascapone or creme fraishe), herby, peppery sauce OR a tomato, basil, onion and garlic one but for me, not all together. 
Very much a personal thing of course but bravely for your first post, you did ask for suggestions.


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## jennyema (May 23, 2013)

justplainbill said:


> The addition of a little (~20% by volume) cream cheese or ricotta can enhance pesto genovese.


 
Cream in pesto seems like a NY NJ thing.  I had never heard of it before ....


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## justplainbill (May 23, 2013)

justplainbill said:


> Good to hear from you Luca.  Used to eat that concoction a lot when I frequented the Pisa - Livorno area.  Kraft's Philadelphia works fine and a dry ricotta is also ok.


You purists can always make your own quagliata fresco  -


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## jabbur (May 23, 2013)

Not knowing what is in the marinara sauce may make any suggestions moot but I'd be adding more herbs like oregano and adding more garlic and maybe some onion.


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## Luca Lazzari (May 23, 2013)

GotGarlic said:


> Lol lurking Luca







justplainbill said:


> Good to hear from you Luca.  Used to eat that concoction a lot when I frequented the Pisa - Livorno area.  Kraft's Philadelphia works fine and a dry ricotta is also ok.



It's a pleasure to be back here, justplainbill 
Now that I think about it, maybe I ate something like that in a long gone past, some sort of creamy pesto in some northern Italy town. I will surely try it, thanks.

shadowscape,
apart from using only oil and no butter, consider trying various kinds of tomato-based sauces. I usually start with a _soffritto_, which is sautéed onions OR onions + carrots + celery OR garlic + carrots + celery OR further variations of these ingredients (it depends on what sauce you're doing: just tomato, tomato and meat, tomato and fish, no tomato, sauce for pasta, for risotto and so on and on and on). Then I add other ingredients, depending of what I have in my larder and how I feel. Ingredients like herbs (mainly dried oregano, fresh parsley, fresh basil), wine or spirits, spices (mainly chilli powder, tabasco, pepper), and those things which I use as taste enhancers (mainly ground capers, minced anchovies, Marmite, ground olives).

To tell the truth, I've never been systematic in my approach to sauces, but this must come to an end. In the next weeks I'm gonna tackle this issue with the utmost scientific precision 
Well, I'll try...


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## justplainbill (May 23, 2013)

Marmite?  How about Maggi?


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## Luca Lazzari (May 23, 2013)

justplainbill said:


> Marmite?  How about Maggi?



I never tried it, I use Marmite to feel like a strange hybrid between a pasta-eater and a true Briton.


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## Oldvine (May 23, 2013)

The cream cheese sounds interesting and is probably good.   I might add some onion and/or garlic.   Marinara is a sauce already that you are building.  It appears that the end sauce is about 1-1/2 cups.   My husband would ask "Where is yours?"


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## Kylie1969 (May 23, 2013)

Luca Lazzari said:


> I never tried it, I use Marmite to feel like a strange hybrid between a pasta-eater and a true Briton.



Vegemite is far nicer than Marmite...imho


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## larry_stewart (May 23, 2013)

Id ditch the cream cheese and replace it with heavy cream.


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## Luca Lazzari (May 24, 2013)

Kylie1969 said:


> Vegemite is far nicer than Marmite...imho



I'll be in UK by mid-June, Kylie1969, I'll look for Vegemite, thanks!


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## buckytom (May 24, 2013)

luca, don't stop there. hop a flight to nyc and i promise to show you a great time. 

umm, not like cooking goddess can , but fun nonetheless. (she deserved that one)

but seriously, come to nyc and i'll show you how butter, like cream, can add something special to a ragu or sugo di pomodoro like naples is to calabria.


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## Luca Lazzari (May 24, 2013)

buckytom said:


> luca, don't stop there. hop a flight to nyc and i promise to show you a great time.
> 
> umm, not like cooking goddess can , but fun nonetheless. (she deserved that one)
> 
> but seriously, come to nyc and i'll show you how butter, like cream, can add something special to a ragu or sugo di pomodoro like naples is to calabria.



Well, thanks man!

I've never come to the USA, and surely New York will be my first destination, New Jersey the second one. I mean, I HAVE to visit Buddy Valastro and all the Sopranos' places...

I just have to overcome my terror of flying, Bologna-London is a short jump


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## Addie (May 24, 2013)

Luca Lazzari said:


> Well, thanks man!
> 
> I've never come to the USA, and surely New York will be my first destination, New Jersey the second one. I mean, I HAVE to visit Buddy Valastro and all the Sopranos' places...
> 
> I just have to overcome my terror of flying, Bologna-London is a short jump


 
Buddy's place took a bad hit from Sandy. You know, Boston is the closest port to Europe. Thus a shorter flying time, and the tickets are cheaper because the landing fees are cheaper. 

Go over to France and take the Chunnel to England. Now that would terrify me.


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## lyndalou (May 24, 2013)

I'm with you, Addie.  My son in law has taken the train through the Chunnell a few times. he says it is quite narrow. I'd need something to knock me out before getting on that train.


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## jennyema (May 24, 2013)

lyndalou said:


> I'm with you, Addie. My son in law has taken the train through the Chunnell a few times. he says it is quite narrow. I'd need something to knock me out before getting on that train.


 

I've done it a few times and you can't see anything.  Its pitch black, like riding a train at night.

Its nothing scary


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## GotGarlic (May 24, 2013)

When I was working, I drove through a tunnel twice a day for over 20 years. Now it's only several times a week lol It's two truck widths wide. No biggie.


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## Addie (May 24, 2013)

lyndalou said:


> I'm with you, Addie. My son in law has taken the train through the Chunnell a few times. he says it is quite narrow. I'd need something to knock me out before getting on that train.


 
I am having a claustrophobia episode just thinking of it. My heart is racing. We have to go through a tunnel to get into Boston proper. I was born in the oldest one, the Sumner Tunnel. I can't go through it during rush hour. I would rather used the Mystic Bridge.


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## Cerise (May 24, 2013)

larry_stewart said:


> Id ditch the cream cheese and replace it with heavy cream.


 
I agree. Half and half is good, as well. Which also reminds me off (pink) vodka tomato sauce over penne, topped with capicola or pancetta.

When tomatoes are in season, my favorite is fresh tomato sauce. In a food processor, puree fresh tomatoes (or San Marzano or Muir Glenn), oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Toss the pasta with the tomato sauce & fresh basil. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. I rub a clove of garlic in the pasta bowls before adding the cooked pasta. Heaven on a plate.

Adding cream to pesto is another way to go. Don't think it's a ny or jersey concoction. It's been around for awhile.


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## jennyema (May 24, 2013)

Addie said:


> I am having a claustrophobia episode just thinking of it. My heart is racing. We have to go through a tunnel to get into Boston proper. I was born in the oldest one, the Sumner Tunnel. I can't go through it during rush hour. I would rather used the Mystic Bridge.



It's like being on the subway!


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## Addie (May 24, 2013)

jennyema said:


> It's like being on the subway!


 
And that is another whole problem for me. When I worked in the Financial District, I would take the bus from downtown to Sullivan Station, change to East Boston in Chelsea. I have worked some jobs that I have to take several buses to get there. I have claustrophobia really bad. Bad enough that it affects my life every day. I never lock my door. Not even when I leave my apartment. I freak out when I lock the door after I leave. And I don't know why. I did have a psychiatrist teach me self-hypnosis when it gets so bad that I can't even function. I have sat on a bench in the subway for more than an hour before I could get on a train.


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## Kylie1969 (May 25, 2013)

Luca Lazzari said:


> I'll be in UK by mid-June, Kylie1969, I'll look for Vegemite, thanks!



Your very welcome Luca, you wont be disappointed, it is very nice 

Enjoy the UK, I loved it when I went there...what places are you going to?


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## buckytom (May 25, 2013)

Addie said:


> I did have a psychiatrist teach me self-hypnosis when it gets so bad that I can't even function. :



today that's called dialectical behavioural therapy, a derivative of cognital behavioural therapy. 

interesting stuff.


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## Luca Lazzari (May 27, 2013)

Addie said:


> Buddy's place took a bad hit from Sandy. You know, Boston is the closest port to Europe. Thus a shorter flying time, and the tickets are cheaper because the landing fees are cheaper.
> 
> Go over to France and take the Chunnel to England. Now that would terrify me.



Sorry for Buddy! And no chance I'll take that underwater hole... 



Cerise said:


> I agree. Half and half is good, as well. Which also reminds me off (pink) vodka tomato sauce over penne, topped with capicola or pancetta.
> 
> ...



Hi Cerise, those are beautiful memories... 



Kylie1969 said:


> Your very welcome Luca, you wont be disappointed, it is very nice
> 
> Enjoy the UK, I loved it when I went there...what places are you going to?



A few days in London, then me and Gabriella will move to Kent, we booked a cottage to visit that beautiful (I hope...) area of England. My first concern now is to find some place for a GORGEOUS sunday lunch


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