Sauce – Fry onions and garlic before adding to the sauce

garlicitalian-cuisineonionssaucetomatoes

I am making a tomato sauce for pasta but I am not sure whether to put the garlic and onions into the sauce raw or to sauté them first?

What would be the difference in the taste, does one have more depth?

Best Answer

Sauteing onions:

  • Softens them, most people prefer not to run into raw onions in their sauce. Onions will cook in a sauce, but very slowly, so frying them before makes sure they will be soft even if your sauce has a fast cooking time
  • Releases sugars, making them taste sweeter
  • Reduces the onion's harshness
  • Browning the onions creates flavor

Sauteing garlic: garlic needs very little sauteing, far less than onion

  • Softens the garlic although it will cook in the sauce much faster than onion
  • Releases the flavors
  • Reduces harsh notes. The more you saute it the mellower the flavor but the less garlic-y it becomes. I often add garlic to my saute in 2 stages so I get both the mellowness and the edginess in my dish. It does mean adding more garlic overall, but it's worth it

So you get more depth of flavor, better flavor and texture sauteing them.

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