levelwave wrote:
> anna maria wrote:
>
>> I hope you know how to peel fresh tomatoes.
>> The combination of sauteéd onion-celery-carrot is called in italian
>> “soffritto” and means lightly freid.
>
>
> Hi Anna... got a question for 'ya... How do you feel about Italian Chef
> Mario Batali repeatedly saying "I would never cook with fresh tomatoes -
> I would only slice them and serve them with salt. In sauces I much
> prefer the acidity of canned tomatoes" I'm no expert in Italian cooking
> so you'll have to enlighten me... If I were to sit down at a your
> Grandmother's table whilst she was preparing a nice Ragu Bolognese -
> would she reach for the vine or the cupboard?...
>
> ~john!
>
>

i think it is not wrong at all to use canned tomatoes. in my opinion
fresh tomatoes are to be preferred when they are in season and they are
ripe. no canned tomatoes compares to it. but for matter of practicality
and in winter when fresh ones are not available, feel free to use canned
tomatoes. i really like to use as much as i can fresh stuff in my
cooking, without being an extremist of course.

there is a long thread about canned tomatoes going on right now, and
everyone stresses how important it is to choose the goodones. my
grandmather would have probably reached for the bottled tomatoes that
she would have done herself in summer at the peack of the season! many
lucky ones with space and equipment still do their own tomatoes.

mario batali is a great chef. but if he likes acidity in tomatoes must
be his personal taste, and doesn't agree (i think) with most of the
italians i am afraid. it doesn't agree with my taste. i stay away from
acidic canned tomatoes. it means just that they have been picked up not
ripe, probably for commercial reasons.

i would like to add that ragu' has a sweet buttery taste. you don't want
any acid. some people suggests to add some sugar to the sauce . that way
you will obtain an acidic sweet tasting sauce. i add instead 1-2
tablespoons of milk or cream (you don't need more). this is a little
trick that not everyone knows. it take the acidity away from the sauce
without changing the taste.

again i think that to really give a smooth sweet taste to your sauce you
have to use fresh. also the yellow tomatoes would recreate the orangy
color you were talking about. but feel free to use canned if you don't
have fresh. as you can see i also used the trick of the milk for the
recipe i wrote earlier.

keep us posted on what you did and how was the result!

Buon appetito!

anna maria


www.annamariavolpi.com