How to Thicken Spaghetti Sauce: 8 Different Ways - A Food Lover's Kitchen (2023)

FAQs

What is a good thickener for spaghetti sauce? ›

Use all-purpose flour in a roux, and save cornstarch, rice flour, tapioca starch, or arrowroot starch for a 1:1 slurry. 7. Add more tomato paste or tomato sauce: To thicken a sauce made with fresh tomatoes, use a tablespoon or two of canned tomato paste or one fourteen-ounce can of tomato sauce.

Tossing in strips of basil, a sprig of thyme or some oregano can take your sauce to the next level. Although fresh herbs might pop a bit more, dried herbs and spices can work just as well. Sprinkling in some red pepper flakes, a pinch of parsley and a dash of salt and pepper can liven up your jarred pasta sauce.

Wheat Flour- The most common thickening agent used in kitchens for hundreds of years, flour is added in various ways but is best when combined with fat to prevent lumping in the sauce. Some refined flours, including Wondra, can be added directly to a liquid without causing this problem.

The most readily available sauce-thickener is flour. For a too-thin sauce, try adding a slurry (equal parts flour and water, whisked together) or beurre manie (equal parts softened butter and flour, kneaded together to form a paste)—both are ideal thickeners for rich and creamy sauces, such as steak sauce recipes.

Adding a cornstarch slurry is an easy way to thicken sauce quickly. Simply combine equal parts water and cornstarch (start with 1/4 cup each). Whisk until smooth, then stir into the sauce.

Use Flour and Water

Combine 2 tablespoons flour with every 1/4 cup cold water and whisk until smooth. Add the mixture to your sauce over medium heat, and continue to stir and cook until you've reached your desired consistency. Test with a spoon.

Cornstarch or arrowroot

Cornstarch and arrowroot are gluten-free alternatives to thickening with flour. They'll also keep your sauce clear and cloud-free. You'll need about 1 tablespoon for every cup of liquid in the recipe. Mix the cornstarch with equal parts water to create a slurry and pour it into the pot.

Reducing – reducing liquid to thicken it simply involves letting excess water boil out of the dish. Bring dish and liquid to a low to medium boil and watch carefully, stirring as needed to let excess liquid evaporate. Cornstarch – using cornstarch is an excellent way to thicken a sauce in a pinch.

What flour is best to thicken sauce? ›

Flour – Wheat flour is comprised of starch and proteins. It's a good thickening agent for sauces, stews, gumbos, gravies, and fruit fillings, as it imparts a smooth, velvety mouthfeel. It also works very well when it's mixed with a fat, making it ideal for creating a roux or beurre manié – more on those a little later.

Add a Roux

To make your own roux to add to your spaghetti sauce, you'll need equal parts butter and flour. Add your butter to a pan over medium heat and slowly sprinkle in the flour in small increments.

The reason for sprinkling a pinch of sugar into a simmering saucepan of tomatoes is simple: sugar cuts the acidity of the tomatoes and creates an overall more balanced sauce. The exact acid levels in tomatoes can vary quite a bit depending on whether they're fresh or canned, the tomato variety, and the time of year.

To determine how much sugar your pasta sauce needs, Taste of Home recommends starting with just ¼ teaspoon and working up from there. You'll know you've added enough sugar when the tartness has toned down and the actual tomato flavor begins to emerge.

Adding a bit of sugar to your homemade spaghetti sauce helps to cut the natural acidity of the tomatoes and helps to balance the sauce. For an extra kick, add a sprinkling of red pepper flakes to your sauce.

Cooking a soup, stew, or sauce uncovered allows water to evaporate, so if your goal is to reduce a sauce or thicken a soup, skip the lid. The longer you cook your dish, the more water that will evaporate and the thicker the liquid becomes—that means the flavors become more concentrated, too.

All natural, aqueous-based polymeric thickeners are derived from polysaccharides with the most common being sourced from cellulose (wood, cotton) and starch (corn, potato). Other important polysaccharide sources include seaweed, plant seeds/roots, and those derived from fermentation.

Potato starch is the most potent of the bunch, with long starch molecules that quickly tangle with each other and thicken a liquid.

The easiest—yet most time-consuming—method for thickening a tomato-based sauce is letting it slowly reduce over the course of several hours. To do this, heat tomato sauce in a saucepan on a stovetop over low heat for approximately six hours.

How do you thicken tomato pasta sauce without cornstarch? ›

All-purpose flour: You can thicken sauces with all-purpose wheat flour. For every tablespoon of cornstarch, use three tablespoons of flour. Combine raw flour with cold water in a small bowl to form a paste, then add it into the sauce as it's simmering. Cooking the flour in the sauce will remove the flour taste.

While adding tomato paste will thicken the sauce and give it a rich deep red color, sometimes we just don't have tomato paste in the cupboard. A thin spaghetti sauce is a sauce that has too much water and therefore an easy way (but sometimes longer way) is to simply SIMMER THE SAUCE.

Cornstarch is used to thicken liquids in a variety of recipes such as sauces, gravies, pies, puddings, and stir-fries. It can be replaced with flour, arrowroot, potato starch, tapioca, and even instant mashed potato granules.

The easiest way to thicken a sauce is to reduce the liquid in a pot on the stovetop, widely used in slow-simmered ragus or pan sauces. For a ragu, you typically add wine or stock to browned meat, then let the sauce simmer to develop the flavors.

Butter does not provide any thickening to a sauce, since it is made of just fat and water. But a chunk of butter, salted or unsalted, swirled into a sauce at the end, can temporarily emulsify a sauce, while adding richness and sheen, all of which are good things.

Three Ways to Thicken Sauce (Cornstarch, Roux, Beurre Manie)

Some recipes call for the addition of some salty, starchy pasta water, but adding too much pasta water unintentionally will make your otherwise perfect sauce extra watery. If your sauce is the consistency you like, make sure to drain your noodles thoroughly before adding them in.

Too much liquid? Get rid of it with science! Let the excess liquid evaporate away by bringing the substance to a boil or a simmer until the desired consistency is reached.

The most commonly used starches (in this country at least) for thickening pan sauces, gravies, puddings, and pie fillings are flour, cornstarch, and tapioca.

Is it better to thicken with flour or cornstarch? ›

Because cornstarch is pure starch, it has twice the thickening power of flour, which is only part starch. Thus, twice as much flour is needed to achieve the same thickening as cornstarch.

The minimum time you should simmer sauce is 30 minutes. This is about how long the oils take to disappear into the sauce (rather than pooling on top). But you should consider simmering for three or more hours, letting it lazily cook away, no more than a few straggling bubbles surfacing at a time.

Cornstarch has twice the thickening power of flour. When a gravy, sauce, soup or stew recipe calls for flour, use half as much cornstarch to thicken. To thicken hot liquids, first mix cornstarch with a little cold water until smooth. Gradually stir into hot liquid until blended.

However, when using flour as a gravy thickener, you must double the amount—use 2 tablespoons of flour per 1 cup of liquid. Use a whisk or wooden spoon to incorporate, stirring constantly until you thicken the gravy to the desired consistency.

IF YOU COOK spaghetti in a big pot of water, drain it, then toss it with sauce, you are pouring a lot of flavor down the drain, says Vendemmia chef Brian Clevenger. “The trick to good pasta is cooking it in the sauce,” he says.

Maybe it needs a touch of salt, red pepper flakes, or some fresh garlic to liven it up. You could add dried or fresh herbs too: oregano, basil, thyme, tarragon, parsley—they're all great! Want to go next level? Toss in some chopped anchovies (or anchovy salt), olives, or some lemon zest and/or juice.

Add butter

Yes, that's right. Toss in a few tablespoons of butter, and let it melt into the sauce. If you've never tried it before, it might seem strange, but a little butter makes tomato sauce rich and smooth, and also balances out too much acidity, which is common in jarred sauces.

You can use either white or brown sugar. Personally, I prefer packed brown sugar, but experiment to see which gives you the best results. I also make sure to add a dollop of butter to my pasta sauce.

Do chefs use sugar in spaghetti sauce? Usually no. But putting (a very small bit) of sugar or even a tiny pinch of baking soda in the tomato sauce can help if it is too acidic, but this is only done if the person cooking it is really in a rush.

Do chefs use sugar in spaghetti sauce? Usually no. But putting (a very small bit) of sugar or even a tiny pinch of baking soda in the tomato sauce can help if it is too acidic, but this is only done if the person cooking it is really in a rush.

What cuts sugar in spaghetti sauce? ›

Try adding more acid to your sauce when it tastes too sweet. Acidic flavors can help subdue the sweetness and allow the sauce to become savory and balanced. Try various types of vinegar such as white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or balsamic vinegar. Citrus juice is also a great acidic alternative!

Starches are the most common and most useful thickeners for sauce making and most common binders for charcuterie cooking. Flour is the principal starch used, others starches used by chefs include cornstarch, arrowroot, waxy maize, instant or pregelatinized starch, bread crumbs, potato starch and rice flour, etc.

Let It Simmer

Letting the sauce simmer on the stovetop over medium-low heat is the easiest way to thicken it through a reduction process. Simmer anywhere between 10-45 minutes until desired consistency has been achieved. Stir regularly to avoid scorching.

Easy-to-access alternatives are wheat flour, arrowroot flour, and rice flour. These are good alternatives to cornstarch because they are more nutritious and contain fewer carbohydrates and calories. Xanthan and guar gum are much stronger thickeners than cornstarch, but they can be harder to obtain and use.

The most commonly used starches (in this country at least) for thickening pan sauces, gravies, puddings, and pie fillings are flour, cornstarch, and tapioca.

Although starches – all-purpose flour, cornstarch, arrowroot, and tapioca – are the most common food thickening agents, several other types exist as outlined in Table 1. Table 1 Common thickeners and their food applications.

Examples of thickening agents include: polysaccharides (starches, vegetable gums, and pectin), proteins (eggs, collagen, gelatin, blood albumin) and fats (butter, oil and lards).

If the consistency of a sauce is too thin or the flavor too weak, adjust it by gently simmering the sauce to reduce, thicken and concentrate the flavors. Other alternatives include adding a thickening agent, cream, a swirl of butter, or a liaison of egg yolk and cream.

Will simmering sauce thicken it? ›

Reduce the Sauce Via Simmering

By far the easiest way to thicken your sauce is to boil out some of the liquid! Simmer the sauce on low heat for anywhere from an extra 5 to 20 minutes. Make sure to keep an eye on it and stir it frequently, so that it doesn't burn.

Cooking a soup, stew, or sauce uncovered allows water to evaporate, so if your goal is to reduce a sauce or thicken a soup, skip the lid. The longer you cook your dish, the more water that will evaporate and the thicker the liquid becomes—that means the flavors become more concentrated, too.

Sugar doesn't thicken in quite the same way as starch or fat, but it does make your sauce stickier, and getting your sauce to stick to the food is the entire point. Adding sugar to water creates a solution that is thicker than water, and further heating (boiling or simmering) makes it even thicker.