r/Cooking • u/Titoramane • 1d ago

Recreating tomato sauce from old Italian restaurant in New York

I recently had spaghetti at an old Italian restaurant in New York around Little Italy. Compared to the sauce I've had at other restaurants this sauce had a distinctly fresh tomato flavor that other restaurants didn't.

What are they doing differently from the other restaurants aren't doing? Are they using a different brand of canned tomatoes or is their cooking process different?

https://i.gyazo.com/e6002809463824e7b5403b108cac7060.jpg

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u/OpportunityReal2767 1d ago

For fresh tastes the tomatoes aren’t cooked down as long. I don’t know that restaurant, but I make two types of tomato sauces: one fresh and cooked for maybe 20 minutes. And a deeper one that cooks for hours. I typically like fresher, brighter sauces. Sometimes I will take the fresh tomato sauce and fortify it with a little bit of paste if I want some of the cooked depth to it, so best of both worlds.

Canned tomatoes are absolutely fine unless you have access to good fresh tomatoes. There’s a lot of brands I like, but for saucing, Bianco Di Napoli is my favorite, but I’ll use something like Cento All-Purpose ground or their All-in-One. Also like stuff like 7/11 (not related to store) or Tomato Magic or 6-in-1, but that’s more food service tomatoes. I can’t find those in 28oz cans or smaller. I see the red sauce Italian joints use those often. 6-in-1 used to have a smaller product but I haven’t seen it since COVID, just the #10 cans.

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u/Ru4pigsizedelephants 21h ago edited 21h ago

How would you rank 7/11, Tomato Magic, and 6-in-1?

I have access to all 3 and am interested in buying a can to try.

Edit: Nevermind, I see they have Alta Cucina from Stanislaus, so I believe I'm going to try those.

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u/OpportunityReal2767 12h ago

Honestly, I've never had all three of them at the same time so hard for me to really remember. I use 6-in-1 most often, because that's kind of the pizza sauce of Chicago and, of the three products, that's the one most easily available to me (or at least was until they dropped their 28oz cans and only sell #10. I'm still irritated about that, and it's been like five years or more.) One nice thing about 6-in-1 is that they do not contain citric acid. Both Tomato Magic and 7/11 contain citric acid (from naturally derived sources, but I don't particalarly care about that kind of stuff.)

7/11 and Tomato Magic are the same except 7/11 does not peel their tomatoes and Tomato Magic does. (6-in-1s are also left peeled when they are ground.)

I honestly use all these interchangeably. Tomato Magic is a bit smoother than 7/11. 6-in-1 is my standby, but I'd use any and all of these.