Whether you like savor it, spread over pizza, stir into pasta, or serve as a delicious dipping sauce for mozzarella sticks, tomato sauce is likely a staple in many dishes you enjoy regularly. While making tomato sauce might be easy for you, learning how to thicken sauce comes with its own set of challenges—and that's true whether you preferstore-boughtor homemade, chunky or smooth. If you find that your spaghetti sauce ortomato sauceis a little too thin, there are a few simple ways to thicken it.
The classic way to thicken a tomato-based sauce is also the best and the easiest, but it isn’t the quickest. Cooking teachers like Christopher Arturo, chef-instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education agree the time-honored method of reducing a tomato sauce is the best way to thicken it.
Reducing is a classic cooking technique. It means bringing the sauce to a boil, reducing the heat, and letting the sauce simmer gently until it reaches your desired consistency. That might be 20 minutes or an hour—perhaps even longer. Tomatoes naturally contain lots of water, so cooking any tomato sauce for a long period of time will help eliminate some of the water content. The water will slowly but surely evaporate, leaving behind a thickened, full-bodied sauce with lots of flavor.
When cooking down or reheating any sauces, Arturo reminds us of the importance of using non-reactive cookware and avoiding copper or aluminum saucepans, as they can give the sauce a metallic flavor. And we remind you that you should reduce a sauce without a lid on the pot to promote evaporation.
Tomato paste is a highly concentrated tomato-based product that adds deep tomato flavors and naturally helps to thicken any pasta sauce, thanks to its paste-like consistency. It’s available in cans and tubes, but tubes are more convenient as you'll rarely need to use a whole can of tomato paste at one time.
One of the best ways to make use of tomato paste is to treat it as a natural thickening agent for tomato-based sauces, says Arturo. In addition to helping to alter the consistency of your sauce, this pantry staple will also help to further enhance the rich, savory flavors of tomato sauce. Arturo recommends stirring in a tablespoon or two and cooking your sauce until it reaches your desired consistency.
Add Cream
Adding heavy cream will change the flavor of a tomato sauce, but it will also thicken it. Drizzle in the cream and simmer for a few minutes until the sauce has your desired consistency.
Add Cheese
Another quick fix is to add cheese: freshly grated Parmesan will add umami and thicken the sauce. Cream cheese is one of our favorite secret ingredients and will thicken a tomato sauce quickly. On the downside, it will also change the flavor of the sauce.
Use a Roux or a Slurry
A roux and a slurry are similar in that both are adding a starch to the sauce, and if not added carefully, can produce a lumpy sauce. How they are added to the tomato sauce is important and care and stirring is key.
Roux
Thickening a béchamel-type sauce with a cooked mixture of equal amounts of fat (usually butter) and flour, a roux, is a classic French technique.
Slurry
A slurry is a more streamlined method, using an uncooked mixture of cornstarch, tapioca starch, or arrowroot mixed with water to create what is called a slurry. It’s often used to thicken a gravy or sauce. Cornstarch is most frequently used in a slurry but is less suited to thickening a tomato sauce; the acid of the tomatoes inhibits the thickening power of cornstarch. If you opt for a slurry to thicken a tomato sauce, use tapioca starch or arrowroot
Flour: Make a slurry of 2 parts water to 1 part all-purpose flour and whisk until very smooth. Slowly whisk in no more than 1 tablespoon of the mixture per 2 cups of simmering sauce. Stir and simmer for about 2 minutes, check the thickness, and repeat with more as needed.
Flour: Make a slurry of 2 parts water to 1 part all-purpose flour and whisk until very smooth. Slowly whisk in no more than 1 tablespoon of the mixture per 2 cups of simmering sauce. Stir and simmer for about 2 minutes, check the thickness, and repeat with more as needed.
Add tomato paste: While tomato sauce often includes tomato paste already, this is a great ingredient to add if your sauce lacks a thick consistency. Not only will tomato paste fill out the sauce, it will also boost the richness and flavor.
So long as you're not gluten-free, flour is an excellent option that you'll likely always have on hand. Not only can you use it to thicken sauces, but it makes an excellent thickener for gravies and soups as well. When added to liquid, the starches in the flour expand, helping to thicken whatever you add it to.
But it's always worth refreshing the memory of the benefits of using sauce to enhance food. Sauces have many benefits including adding flavour, adding moisture, improving the appearance of food, adding taste contrast, as well as adding sharpness or tanginess.
The best way to thicken spaghetti sauce without paste is to reduce the amount of liquid by gently simmering the sauce over low heat. Other options include using a thickening agent such as corn starch or bulking up the sauce with additional ingredients like ground meats and pureed root vegetables.
Does adding milk to tomato-based sauces make them creamier or does it just thin out the consistency? Adding milk just thins the consistency. If you want to taste the creaminess, you need to add at least half & half. However, you'll taste full creaminess, using heavy cream.
Cornstarch is an extremely effective thickener that works very quickly. One of its benefits is that it doesn't change the flavor of your sauce, just binds the liquid with starch molecules for a silkier, stiffer texture.
Butter does not provide any thickening to a sauce, since it is made of just fat and water. But a chunk of butter, salted or unsalted, swirled into a sauce at the end, can temporarily emulsify a sauce, while adding richness and sheen, all of which are good things.
Use two tablespoons flour mixed with ¼ cup cold water for each cup of medium-thick sauce. Thoroughly mix in the water to prevent lumps. After stirring the combined flour and water into the sauce, cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Heat one minute more to cook the flour thoroughly.
Starchy vegetables—like potatoes, winter squash or celeriac—are excellent thickening agents, especially if they've been pureed. Simply roast or boil these vegetables and pop them into the food processor until smooth. Then, stir it into the sauce, and voila: It will instantly be thicker!
For every 1 tablespoon of tomato paste needed, use 3 tablespoons of tomato puree or sauce. Add the puree or sauce in place of the tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, until the puree or sauce has reduced and thickened. You'll have a similar deep, savory flavor.
Wheat flour is used extensively in professional kitchens as a thickening agent. Although it can be combined with water to create a whitewash, it is more commonly mixed with fat, which surrounds the starch granules and prevents clumping when added to hot liquids.
There are plenty of situations that require the thickening power of a pantry starch: your pie filling, soup, sauce, gravy. Cornstarch, tapioca starch (also known as tapioca flour), arrowroot, potato starch and plain old wheat flour are typical options.
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