Last night, I made a Peperonato pasta sauce. It was delicious, but when I added the balsamic vinegar at the end of the dish and then cooked it off (leaving a sweet reduction) it left the whole sauce a rather disgusting brown color. It was just me and my wife, so it didn't matter too much, but it wasn't appetizing to look at it, and I'd have balked at serving it to guests, even though it tastes great.
How could I have fixed this dish? More generally, how can I correct unpleasant coloring in dishes?
Best Answer
There are things you can do to tweak the colors, but generally it's easy to move towards brown and dark, and hard to move towards a pure shade and light.
You can use food coloring, spices with a lot of color (like turmeric). You can lighten with cornstarch, flour, and dairy. (thanks satanicpuppy)
If presentation is important to you, you can buy ingredients that make it easier to get the colors you want in the final product. For instance, next time you make the dish you could use white balsamic vinegar and a little more sugar.