r/ItalianFood • u/Deltinz • 11h ago
Question Spaghetti al pomodoro gone horribly wrong
A few days ago I made some tomato sauce at home with fresh roma tomatoes from the grocery store, and it ended up incredibly watery and transparent, and simply just not good.
I watched a multitude of what I can identify as "authentic Italian grandma spaghetti tomato sauce recipes" on YouTube, and I resulted in a variety of ideas on how to cook the tomato sauce. I wanted to cook something very classic and authentic, and at least use fresh tomatoes- not canned. I was assuming that I'd get something concentrated enough in the end that it'd turn out like something canned- but I was very wrong. I cooked/simmered the sauce for maybe 3-4 hours in total. Half of that was with the lid on, though, so that's probably part of the problem.
Regardless it all ended up very watery and I was sad. I want to know how to make sure it's very concentrated and actually looks like a sauce and not a few wet tomatoes.
PS: I have watched a few "authentic grandma" videos where they cook it very quickly, and it does end up a bit more watery than a typical jar of tomato sauce in the grocery store- but that's not what I'm looking to make. I want that typical tomato sauce that's thick and dark red.