Add This Ingredient To Your Next Tomato Sauce To Make Canned Taste Like Fresh

I don’t know about you, but regardless of my kitchen successes, my kitchen failures are always the same –- tomato-based dishes. Luckily I’ve come across a secret ingredient that makes simple store-bought tomato products taste like fresh off the vine tomatoes, perfect for any tomato sauce or soup recipe.

Living in a temperamental climate as I do (hello swampy, constantly rainy summers) means fresh tomatoes are few and far between. When I cook tomato sauce or soup, I turn to canned tomato sauce and purees, but even though I add a mound of onions, garlic, and herbs, the taste is always…tinny? It’s a hard flavor to describe, but the sauce or soup falls sort of flat. I’m following the recipe to a T, but it’s never like the restaurants, nor does it have that true tomato taste.

So what’s the trick to counter this problem? Baking soda. Yep, baking soda is the secret add-in to make tomato sauces taste more tomato-y. Adding baking soda into your tomato sauce or soup neutralizes the pH of the canned tomato products. Rather than tasting the sharp acidity of the tomatoes, you’ll notice the delicately sweet, floral notes.

When you dish up your next tomato-based recipe, no one will know that you made everything from pantry staples.