A Single Man’s Kitchen, February 23, 2007
By Jeremy Goodwin


Bicarb bungles and quick pasta sauce

I am constantly amazed at the lengths people will go to to take a shortcut in a recipe. The desire for speed usually comes at a price—in taste, appearance or nutritional value.

While I am not averse to ugly food occasionally, I refuse to relinquish any flavor or goodness on the grounds that I am saving a minute or two of cooking time. 

The most recent example I ran across was the use of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) as the ultimate tenderizer, especially in Asian cooking. Then, in our food photo and discussion group, the baking soda addicts started popping up. They use it in tomato sauces to reduce acidity without sugar, cook beans faster and reduce the gas effect, sweeten rhubarb, put it in scrambled eggs to fluff them, prevent scalloped potatoes from curdling, add it to fat in which they are about to fry foods that usually give them indigestion and, the most offensive suggestion, add some to tea to take out the bitterness. This last one had me floored. Why would anyone buy tea that was so foul that it required adding baking soda to make it potable?

Of course, the miracle of baking soda comes with two major drawbacks seldom mentioned by its proponents: it contains sodium in large doses and destroys all the B vitamins in the food. It also changes colors in foods such as rhubarb and leaches out tart flavors, often with the result that even more salt is used to compensate for the lack of definition.

The problem of the long time required to cook beans is easily solved without resorting to a pressure cooker by buying canned beans as a starting point. Those with the patience to begin with dried beans will benefit from learning that when replacing evaporated water during the process it is vital to use hot water. If you chill the beans, they will harden and take much longer to cook. A little garlic and vinegar also can speed the cooking process a little, important at this altitude, and the air pressure in San Miguel significantly reduces the boiling point to around 200°F, or 93°C. This figure is not exact, because there is about a 3°F variation from the lowest to the highest elevations in San Miguel.

I agree that baking soda will reduce the acidity of tomato sauces, if you are insisting on omitting the steps that make any tomato sauce taste good. The first step is to sauté the onions until they begin to caramelize, and equally important is not overcooking the garlic at this stage. The second step is to use ripe tomatoes, and if you are making a quick sauce, to remove the seeds to reduce the time the tomatoes take to lose the acid edge. Third, and probably the most predictable of my themes, is to add a sweetener. I tend to avoid sugar; my choices usually are sweet red (rossi) or sweet white (bianco) vermouth or an orange liqueur or brandy akin to Grand Marnier or Lillet. It is important to add them in the latter stages of cooking but give them three to five minutes to evaporate the alcohol and meld their flavors into the sauce.

If you prefer adding a sugar, at least start with cane plugs or brown sugar in small quantities. It does not take very much to push a sauce over the edge from a good balance to uncomfortably sweet. 

The following sauce can be thrown together in roughly the time it takes to boil the water and cook regular spaghetti, and is plenty for two people if it is the only course and enough for four if you are starting with an antipasto and serving a dessert.

Quick Tomato Sauce

(Approximate time, 20 minutes)

8–10 ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced

1 large onion, diced

3–5 cloves fresh garlic, diced

2 tablespoons fresh basil, finely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh oregano or marjoram, finely chopped

1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped

1 pinch cayenne pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

¼–½ cup sweet white vermouth

Salt and pepper to taste



In a large skillet, heat the oil and add the onions. Sauté for about 3 minutes, until they begin to brown, then add the garlic. Cook for a further minute and add the tomatoes, half the basil and oregano, and the cayenne pepper. Cook over medium heat, maintaining a vigorous simmer for 6 to 8 minutes. 

Taste the sauce to judge the necessary amount of vermouth to sweeten it to your personal preference. This will depend on the ripeness and variety of the tomatoes, a reason why sweet plum tomatoes are so popular for pasta sauces. Add the vermouth and continue to cook on medium heat, reducing the fluid to almost nothing (should take about 5 minutes).

When your pasta seems almost ready to drain, stir in the remaining oregano and basil and half the parsley. Taste again and adjust the salt and pepper. Drain the pasta and toss it into the sauce, coating it well.

If the sauce looks to be getting too dry before your pasta is ready, you can turn off the heat and put on a tight-fitting lid until the last minute. I prefer just adding a bit more vermouth or even an orange liqueur.

Serve with a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano and garnish with the remaining parsley.

Jeremy Goodwin is an author, freelance food writer and owner of The Best Kept Secret. He may be contacted at Jeremy@dcnet2000.com.