The Canned Ingredient That Brings Rich Flavor To Any Tomato Sauce

Making homemade pasta sauce from scratch is an affair worth the effort if you're using the right ingredients. A simple marinara can make or break lasagna, spaghetti, and all your other favorite Italian dishes. And what determines the quality of your marinara is its tomato flavor. That's why we recommend splurging on San Marzano tomatoes in this case. Roma tomatoes have a refreshingly sweet and bold taste complemented by the other ingredients in the sauce, and there's one canned ingredient that will take these elements to the next level.

Adding tomato paste to your sauce will give it a more concentrated tomato flavor. A can of tomatoes and a can of tomato paste could have the same exact ingredients, but they're processed and packaged in different ways that impact the flavor. Unlike a plain can of tomatoes, tomato paste is a concentrated product (like orange juice from concentrate). The fruit has been cooked and strained from the seeds, peel, and excess water content. This process separates the actual tomato from the water inside of it, creating a more concentrated flavor.

Tomato paste comes in two types of containers, and each one tends to contain a different preservative that might affect how you like the taste. These distinctions really only matter when deciding how much salt to use in your recipe, as you'll be using tomato paste to simmer the aromatics — onion, garlic, and seasonings. Canned tomato paste tends to have citric acid as the preservative, an organic acid derived from citrus that can have a faint tartness. Tomato paste packaged in a tube will most likely have salt as its preservative instead, so you can expect it to taste a bit saltier.

Most brands that sell canned tomatoes also sell tomato paste, with Cento and Mutti being fan favorites for many home cooks. However, Contadina specifies using Roma tomatoes on the front of its can, which is a green flag for getting a flavor closest to the San Marzano variety. Whatever tomato paste calls to you, browning it at the bottom of the pot should add depth to your marinara with its umami goodness — even one spoonful can go a long way.