"Fixing Marinara Sauce that's Too Oily?" Topic

Any tips to fix home-made Marinara Sauce that's too oily, and overpowering.

Tastes a bit like rancid oil to me, but I don't eat olives, so perhaps that's the way it is supposed to taste.

Can't say I'm a big fan of olive oil, in general either, so am not sure what it really should taste like, even when good.

Thought I'd bought Extra Virgin (yea, like that's a real thing) Olive Oil, but apparently someone had moved it on the shelf, and all the bottles look the same to me, so what I really got was just Virgin Olive Oil, apparently, which says it should have a mild taste (if that's mild, I certainly don't want the strong stuff).

Used a famous female chef's recipe (the one going through an expensive divorce in L.A.), and followed it to the letter, with 1/2 cup of olive oil (which seemed like a lot to me at the time, but directions were clear) to sauté the onion and garlic, and celery and carrots in.

Tasted it while cooking and wasn't pleased. Tastes about he same after cooking for a full hour.

I've tried sopping up some of the extra oil that floated to the top, but it still tastes awful, in my opinion.

So, any tips to rescue/save the sauce, or should I write it off, and stick to canned?

What are the amounts of the rest of the ingrediants? Sounds like a lot of olive oil to me. And who puts onions,carrots and celery in Marinara sauce? I'ld say for a pint-quart or so of tomatoes 2-3 TB of oil should be enough not 8. Not that I'ld actually measure it:-)

He used the Giada D'L. recipe as found on the I'net.

It includes carrots, onions, etc.

And that 1/2 cup of EVOO is WAY too much. For 3 x 28
ounce cans of crushed tomatoes, I use 3 Tablespoons
of EVOO to saute the onions, etc.

Mako, I don't think the sauce can be rescued. I'd just
pitch it and start over.

First rule of internet recipes, if it sound wrong don't do it. In my case it was the amount of black pepper in the marinara. It sounded wrong to me, but that what is said. Followed to the letter – tossed the sauce.

Tastes a bit like rancid oil to me…

Maybe the problem is, in part, that it was?

"Tastes awful" = only that it's too oily or tastes genuinely bad?

You can't cook off olive oil, longer cooking time is just going to lead to more oxidation of the oil, etc

If it tastes okay other than being too oily you could save it by adding more of all the other ingredients, probably twice as much as originally called for, to turn it into a triple-sized batch. But having cooked it for an hour some of the other ingredients may have gone off.

If it actually tastes bad I would toss it, don't throw good money after bad.

One crazy thing I do when getting recipes off the internet is to get many (4-7) recipes for the same thing and compare them. Very often you find that several are similar and you'll see that some are clearly insane or typo-filled. Some will have useful tips, some will have interesting variations, some are easier, some are too fiddly. If you have a even a little experience with cooking and synthesize several recipes you'll be able to tell the winners from the ones that are just going to lead you off a cliff.

Long cooking can drive off water and thicken sauces, but it will also drive off aromatic compounds. Some meat recipes rely on long cook times so that all the collagen liquifies to achieve certain textures. But T-sauce usually benefits from normal cook times followed by twenty four hours in the fridge.

Some people like to dip bread in olive oil, that's a whole thing by itself. So you could check your olive oil by pouring a teaspoon in a saucer, then dip in a piece of nice bread and eat that. Get a second opinion if one is available. It should taste nice and a little bit olive-y. If it tastes unpleasant you should probably toss the olive oil.

Olive oil doesn't usually go bad, though. Was it old or stored in direct sunlight?

Good luck!

Good olive oil has a relatively pleasant taste, which you can discern if you dip a bit of bread into it and taste it. Getting less-than-virgin olive oil may also have warped the taste away from your target. Rancid is rancid--If it tastes rancid, you can't get rid of that. Toss the batch as a bad job. Take your beating and learn from it.
If you buy your olive oil in clear glass or plastic, or even tinted glass or plastic, the light degrades the oil in less time than you'd care to think about. Try to buy it in opaque glass or metal cans. Store it in the dark/cool in a sealed metal can if at all possible.Use a smaller utility bottle, also light-tight as your ready supply for dashes and dabs in everyday cooking.

Mrs. Carp's Damfine Simple Marinara Sauce (as I remember it--any errors in the telling are my fault, but it truly is about as simple as this):

Several cans of crushed tomatoes, pomodoro preferred--just tomatoes, but reserve the liquid.
Olive oil
Onions, chopped small
Spices--garlic, Italian Seasoning, Basil, and/or rosemary, salt, a _little_ pepper, etc--others as your tastes permit--fresh or dried per availability or choice.

In large pot, add a glug or two of oil to make a THIN layer on the bottom.
--Add onions, simmer until translucent.
--Add basic spice load, especially any fresh chopped spices (if fresh are used). Stir a bit and simmer a little while.
--Add drained tomatoes. Simmer/Stir/Taste.
--Adjust spice, add reserved tomato liquid if needed to adjust consistency. Simmer/stir/taste/adjust some more.
Repeat until it be done. NOTE: keep a pad of how many jots, tittles, dashes, and spoonsful of which spices you toss in. You might be able to recreate a really good combination that is truly to your liking in the future.
You might consider adding a TINY (teaspoon or two) bit of sugar, but Mrs. Carp will have no mercy on you if you sweeten it up like most American commercial sauces.
Go forth and cover up that nekkid spaghetti!

I make mine in a large skillet. Usually 2 TB is quite enough. You only need enough to saute your tomatoes, onions or other vegetables.

I make a primavera sauce and while it should have oil as it's base, it is still 4 TB…which is 1/4 cup. 8 TB is too much for anything. Just sayin'.

Yeah, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan/pot to NO MORE than 1/4" thickness of Olive oil and to saute' your onions, spices and garlic (add last).

You should have some leftover oil that will gently meld into the sauce as it simmers over the course of a 2/4 hours.

Thanks for the tips.

It called for 1/2 a cup of olive oil to sauté the veggies and garlic in, and 2 large cans of whole tomatoes. I picked this one, since another called for a full cup with three large cans of tomatoes, so this one had less oil to ingredients from another one out there.

2 x carrots and 2 x stalks of celery, plus 2 x small onions.

Seemed like a pretty simple recipe, but tastes horrid.

Giada sucks…….

Yea, 2 x TBSP sounds about right, I suspect.

Thanks for all the responses, and recommendations.

Time to buy a jar of it, just to get an idea of what it should taste like.

I usually modify a Classico Sausage and Peppers sauce with some hamburger, and a few spices, plus a little milk, or cream at the end, for a decent Bolognese Sauce.

I'm clearly in the deep end for Marinara sauces, without a life preserver.

FYI, grades of olive oil (extra virgin, virgin,etc.) are definitely a real thing. The highest grade starts with cold pressing fresh olives and they go down from there, until you're ultimately using heat to wring the last drops from a slurry of pits and skins.

Origin (soil, climate, techniques) also plays a big part, just like in wine. The wine analogy also holds in that olive oil produced in EU countries has stricter controls over what can be called extra virgin, cold pressed, and so on. FWIW, there are some very good olive oils being produced in the US now.

California Ranch is supposed to be one of the best around and if you luck out, you can get BOGO deals on it two or three times a year at Publix and other stores. Go for the big bottles!

I'm a freak for good olive oil. I agree that recipe had wayyyy too much.

One crazy thing I do when getting recipes off the internet is to get many (4-7) recipes for the same thing and compare them. Very often you find that several are similar and you'll see that some are clearly insane or typo-filled. Some will have useful tips, some will have interesting variations, some are easier, some are too fiddly. If you have a even a little experience with cooking and synthesize several recipes you'll be able to tell the winners from the ones that are just going to lead you off a cliff.

AMEN to That!!!

Some people like to dip bread in olive oil, that's a whole thing by itself. So you could check your olive oil by pouring a teaspoon in a saucer, then dip in a piece of nice bread and eat that. Get a second opinion if one is available. It should taste nice and a little bit olive-y. If it tastes unpleasant you should probably toss the olive oil.

"Andrew Walters"…

It took me 25 years to learn this. Been working to "improve" that knowledge for over three decades!!!

Giada sucks…….

Don't know 'bout that… Bobby Flay?…

The bread-in-oil thing is real Italian; my Grandmom-in-law would put out a shallow dish with oil, spices, some slivered basil, sliced tomatoes, and bits of fresh mozzarella, to be eaten by dipping and swirling some good Italian rolls or bread in the oil/spices, and scooping some cheese/tomato/onion onto the nice oily bread. Excellent to sit around a kitchen table shooting the breeze with your friends or family.

What's the brand name and it's point of origin? I find Trader Joe's Extra Virgin to be decent – use it instead of butter when making brownies and cookies.

How to Tell if Your Olive Oil Is Fake

Your Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Is Fake

It's Star Olive Oil, and just virgin, not the EVOO.

Yes, I'm aware of the counterfeit/mismarked OO issues. A shame they don't put crooks like that in jail, never to see the light of day again, but forced to work to pay for the taxes/funds needed to imprison them.

[the Italian part of me speaking]
Give me a bottle of good red wine, good olive oil and bread and you make me a happy man. If you really need, you can add some parmesan cheese and/or prosciutto.

Unfortunately, an olive oil being extra virgin is not enough to make it automatically good, even by reputed brands and countries. Cheaper extra virgin olive oils can be just… uneatable (undrinkable?), and this has nothing to do with fake or not. Some cheap ones just have a strong side taste (?) that basically kills the food.

The difference is clear even if you have never tried olive oil. I admit I can not tell the difference between a, say, 10 €/L olive oil and a 40 €/L one – but lower than that the risk of getting something uneatable is concrete.

Having spent almost 10 years with an Italian American food importer and distributor, look on the bottle for "product of Italy". By Italian law, that means the entire product, including the olives are of Italian origin. If you ever do a taste testing..you will find a big difference.

As to rancid oil…buy smaller containers. Once opened, stored in a dark, cool space it will turn in three months. Do not refrigerate it!!!

For you folks who like to use oil for a dip for your bread, do not overlook Pomace if you can find it. It is last press, has specs of olive in it, is dark, unsuitable to cook with, but has a very strong flavor.

Unfortunately, there has been scandal lately regarding true Extra Virgin oil.