Spaghetti Sauce Question

I usually make the noodles and then put the sauce on it. Not into it. We do that because I only make just enough noodles and then have a lot of left over sauce. So, it's great for left overs! I just have to cook up some noodles and it's ready. Super easy :)

I make homemade sauce. I have to put noodles on plate then put sauce on top. I don't like mine mixed together.

we do the sauce on the noodles. I've had it the other way but never liked it as much.

Sauce on the pasta.
Italians would cringe at the adding pasta to the sauce.
Most people use too much sauce!
Authentic pasta has very little sauce--just a coating.

We make our own gravy! (tomato sauce)

It's been a while since I have made homemade sauce or as my Grandma called it red gravy (if she added meatballs). I like using Barilla brand pasta and sauces. Growing up with an Italian family we would have the pasta and sauce separate. You would put your pasta on your plate and add the sauce and meat (meatballs or sausage) to it.

I figure it doesn't matter as long as you get to eat it. Also the sauce will stick better if you don't rinse the paste and/or don’t add oil to it either.

I make homemade marinara. When we choose noodles , stuffed shells, etc. that's great.

I serve my bowl of marinara and have your choice of noodles, stuffed shells , etc and make your own.

I don't mix it for everyone because everyone does not always have the same tastes!

Enjoy

I boil up the noodles and heat up the sauce.
Then the noodles go into the individual bowls and sauce gets poured on top (sprinkle cheese on top of that).
If the noodles have to wait any length of time till serving, a very little olive oil mixed in with the noodles (after draining) will keep them from getting sticky.

I grew up doing it your husband's way, with the sauce mixed in with the pasta. I always felt like I didn't really get the sauce flavor, texture, etc doing it that way. When I went to a friend's house when I was in Jr. High (isn't it always better at a friend's house) and her mother served the sauce in a seperate bowl to dish out onto our noodles I LOVED it. I serve it that way. It's a much better sauce experience, in my opinion.

Okay... So Italian restaurant training (in the US) says :

3/4s of the sauce in a hot 9"shallow sauté pan, as sauce bubbles, noodles & schtuff (veg, protein, whatever), flip 5 or 6 times, plate, sauce on top, wipe rim.

Family style has me using a 18" deep sauté pan... High eat, Sauce, everything else, turn off heat, stir and let simmer on cooling burner while I go read for 10 minutes. Plate, garnish.

((LOL... I learned to cook pasta in southern Italy. In Rome, pasta is added to the sauce. In Italian restaurant cooking in the US, more sauce is added to the top. Italians have different ways of cooking depending on the region. In Rome / Amalfi, quick sauces are made while the pasta is boiling. Then noodles added. In Northern Italy (Rome & Milan battle over almost everything) or Tuscany, Sicily, etc., it may be different. I wait 10 minutes, because I'm using dried pasta and the extra 10 minutes allows it to silky up in the sauce))

I brown ground beef in a pot, drain the grease and pour in the sauce. Yes I use a jar of Ragu! I sometimes add chopped zuchinni, yellow squash, more mushrooms and corn or whatever I feel like. I boil the pasta in a separate pot till done, drain and put back in its pot. We then scoop up pasta onto our own plates and scoop up how ever much sauce we each want. I like a huge ammount of sauce and my husband barely drizzles a few spoonfulls over his pasta. After we are done, I toss the left over pasta into the pot of left over sauce, mix, and save for the next day. Its always good mixed together too, but for the first serving, I want my sauce on top!

You are right! I'm a big believer in sauce-to-noodles ratios. (this may be a bit geeky for most, but that's how I describe it to my husband!:) Yes, the sauce goes over the noodles, because it really depends on the type of noodle and the consistency of the sauce. Besides, how else are you going to figure out if you have leftovers, and leftover noodles (which can be dressed with olive oil and parmesan when re-served)?

your dh is weird! totally your way for me.
:) khairete
S.

Both.

I mix some sauce in with the pasta, enough that the pasta is lightly covered. Then I put a spoon of sauce on top of each serving of pasta.

Sauce followed on top, mix it when you eat it!

For spaghetti, I do basically what Ephie does. While the spaghetti is in colander, I putt a couple of ladles full of sauce into the pasta pot, then dump the pasta back in and toss it to coat. Then as I dish each plate, I put a ladle of sauce on top of each one.

For any of the macaronni style/ bite sized pasta (penne, rigatoni, shells, etc), I usually skip the marinara in favor of something olive oil based made in the saute pan (sliced sausage, veggies, onion, garlic, chicken, whatever). In that case, I throw the pasta INTO the saute pan and toss it there before serving.

A tip to make your sauce stick... before draining your pasta, add a ladle or two of the starchy pasta water to your sauce. It really does make a difference.

HTH
T.

If you make it the way a restaurant does, they add the pasta (al dente) to the sauce in the pan coat it and then serve it. If the pasta is not eaten right away, then it might soak up to much sauce though. It really doesn't matter which way you do it, it is not "Italian" to do one way or another. And what is all this about "goulash"?? Real Hungarian Gulyas is soup and NOT served on noodles.

The way my mom did it was to add the noodles to the sauce, mix it up and serve.

The way I do it now, however, is to serve noodles and sauce separately and let each person create the ratio of noodles to sauce that they prefer. It's just easier that way for us than having to deal with one kid or another complaining that there's too much sauce/not enough sauce/too many chunks/not enough meat/too much meat etc. etc. etc.....

i was raised with it all dumped together, now i like it with a scoop of sauce on top.

My question in return -- does your meat sauce have onions, peppers and mushrooms in it or is that goulash? lol

I used to pour the sauce onto the noodles on my plate, but now I undercook the pasta by a couple of minutes, drain it and finish cooking it right in the sauce. The sauce goes a lot further and the pasta really absorbs the sauce nicely in those last couple of minutes of cooking. Of course, I don't rinse the pasta in cold water or put any oil into the water - that would negate any of the "cooking in the sauce" effects. Then the pasta, mixed with the sauce, gets dumped into a nice big serving bowl and everyone digs in!

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, I'm so glad that you wrote about this, it seems so silly but we have the SAME argument. I usually make him his own batch, and leave some to do my way. the kids get to pick which they like better.

I was raised to pour the sauce over the noodles, but then I read a little while ago that the true Italian way is that the noodles go into the sauce and coat all of the noodles. We tried it this way and have stuck w/ it. But yes, it does dilute the taste a little, doesn't it?

At home, I make the sauce and serve it separately from the pasta. We add cheese, nuke it and eat.

If you watch authentic Italian chefs on Food Network, you will find that they cook the pasta in very salty water ("It should taste like the sea.") While the pasta is still al dente, they transfer it to a pan with sauce and finish the cooking of the pasta there. This brings everything up to service temperature, finishes cooking the pasta and imparts the flavor of the sauce into the pasta.

**** I am referring to the food they cook being authentic Italian. Not the chefs themselves. :-)