Make a Red Wine Sauce for Pasta

Red wine can be added to other ingredients when making pasta sauce from scratch to add richness and depth of flavor to the finished product. The alcohol in the wine will cook off as the mixture simmers, leaving a robust sauce.

Ingredients

  • 1 can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste
  • 1 tbsp dried oregano, or to taste
  • 1 tbsp dried basil, or to taste
  • 1/2 cup red wine, preferably Chianti or Barolo

Steps

  1. Heat oil in pan.
    • Preheat a deep, nonstick saucepan over medium heat. Add olive oil and let the oil heat for a few minutes.
  2. Sauté garlic in the oil.
    • Add minced garlic to the heated olive oil. Sauté for 2-to-3 minutes, stirring continuously, until the garlic has softened and starts to become translucent.
    • Reduce the heat if the garlic starts to turn brown or smell bitter. This means the garlic is cooking too fast and is starting to burn, which could make your sauce taste bitter.
  3. Add crushed tomatoes.
    • Pour crushed tomatoes into the pan. Stir to incorporate the garlic into the tomatoes. Cook the tomatoes over medium heat for 10 minutes or until they're heated through.
  4. Incorporate seasonings.
    • Add salt, pepper, basil, oregano and red pepper flakes to the tomatoes. Stir the tomatoes well to incorporate the seasonings evenly throughout the sauce.
    • Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings to your taste. Add more red pepper flakes to make the sauce spicier or more basil and oregano to enrich the herb flavor.
  5. Stir wine into the sauce.
    • Gently pour wine into the tomato sauce. Stir the mixture thoroughly to work the wine into the sauce.
  6. Simmer the sauce.
    • Add a heavy lid to the saucepan.
    • Reduce the heat under the saucepan to low.
    • Simmer the red wine pasta sauce on low heat for 30 minutes.
  7. Cook pasta.
    • Cook your pasta of choice while the sauce is simmering. Strain the pasta well and portion it onto plates or pour it onto a serving platter.
  8. Top the pasta with sauce.
    • Pour the finished red wine sauce over the pasta. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Things You'll Need

  • A large heavy stainless steel pot
  • 4 tablespoon olive oil (not extra virgin)
  • 1 medium sweet onion chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 cans of 28, or 29 ounces. of good quality crushed Italian tomatoes
  • red crushed pepper flakes (about 1 teaspoon)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • dried oregano (about 1 teaspoon)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 cup good quality red wine
  • On medium heat, sauté onions, and garlic along with the red crushed pepper flakes, bay leaf, and oregano until glazed, and golden; being careful not to burn, and making sure to turn heat to low. Add 1/2 cup of the wine, and cook down. Add both cans of crushed tomatoes...
  • add about 1/4 of water to each of the 2 cans, swoosh it around, and add it to the sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste, let it come to a gentle boil, and cook for about 45 minutes on low heat. Towards the end, add another 1/2 cup of red wine, swirl a small amount of extra virgin olive oil, for presentation, and flavor. Add it to your favorite pasta, and save the rest for other uses.

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