Jeffrey wrote:

I'm reading this recipe and I'm floored by the amount of sugar in the sauce. Is the a candy recipe or tomato sauce for pasta, made me cringe just reading it.

posted on March 12, 2008 at 11:31 PM

Lilliana wrote:

1/2 cup sugar? Are you kidding? Is this a dessert?

posted on March 13, 2008 at 9:26 AM

Firesign wrote:

Somebody's been watching too many "Godfather" reruns. As an Italian child and burgeoning cook, I was taught by both grandmothers that sugar is NEVER added to a tomato sauce. If it's cooked for the proper amount of time with the correct type of tomatoes, it creates its own sweetness without any short-cut additions.

posted on March 13, 2008 at 11:47 AM

Kathy Lemire wrote:

Nonsense...sugar is essential to CUT THE ACIDITY of the tomatoes....I learned how to make sauce with an interpreter for an Italian grandmother of a family friend who "didn't speak English!!" and she USED sugar.....
Remember the comments from all 3 Judges....her dish got HIGH MARKS and no negative comments.....relax already about the SUGAR!!!

posted on March 13, 2008 at 2:00 PM

Christina wrote:

My husband and I just made this lasagna. We are typically against sweet sauce but decided that sugar would be good to cut the acidity so we used 1/4 cup. On it's own, the sauce may have been sweet for our taste but it was very good in the dish. We agreed that without the sugar the acidity would have overpowered the bechamel sauce which really made the dish. And yes, the judges did like the dish which was a convincing arguement for us.

posted on March 15, 2008 at 7:32 PM

NicoleAnne wrote:

Ms. Lemire's correct ... Sugar is used to cut tomato acidity. The contestant didn't have time to pick the right tomatoes and create a 5 hour marinara sauce so shortcuts were necessary. Like all recipes decrease the amt of sugar if the tomato sauce does not come out to your liking - but to eliminate (using canned tomatoes) would be a mistake.

posted on March 17, 2008 at 1:24 AM

Aubrey Lake wrote:

This recipe is remarkable. the flavors are prefectly blended and the sugar adds a nice special acidty flavor. the homemade pasta really sets the dish off and also gives it a real italian flavor.

posted on March 18, 2008 at 6:42 AM

Granma wrote:

I agree with "firesign." You do NOT add sugar to a tomato sauce. The sugar chemically breaks down the tomato sauce, which can become runny. If you do need to cut the acidity, you had a few carrots, which are cut into larger pieces so you can retrieve them before serving the dish. (The carrots also ad the sweetness you might want in this kind of dish.) This was taught to me by MY grandmother ... and I'm old! :-)

posted on March 22, 2008 at 12:32 PM

pierrette lenoir wrote:

Yes, sugar is used to cut acidity. I am from France, and my grand mother was italian, and when she made her sauce with tomatoes from the garden (perfectly ripe in the sun!!!) she didn't add sugar. BUT, when using canned tomatoes, things are different. I do add 1 tbsp sugar in my marinara, and I think it helps.

posted on March 22, 2008 at 1:49 PM

Kari wrote:

I made this for my family yesterday. I'm not an expert chef, so I was a little disappointed that Nikki didn't include instructions for a béchamel (I looked it up in Joy of Cooking), and I assumed a 350F oven until bubbly. I found the dish really, really rich. A vegetable layer of some kind would have helped. I'll definitely cut back on the sugar next time - my dish was really, really sweet. But, to be fair, I cooked up the sauce and threw it in a crockpot until the end of the day when I assembled the lasagne. One item that seemed way off was the recipe for the pasta. Was I supposed to use all 4 cups of flour? It took about a dozen eggs yolks before I was able to get it to begin to pull together. It was delicious pasta, but the egg count was so far off...

posted on March 25, 2008 at 8:10 AM

miranda wrote:

i think the fact that you made your own pasta was SO COOL! i watched you on the episode. hopefully, when i make it, my pasta will be just as pretty.

posted on April 2, 2008 at 8:25 PM

epicurean wrote:

many canned tomatoes at the market have calcium chloride and/or citric acid as preservatives which give them a sour note and a funky aftertaste of calcium (if you have ever drank orange juice fortified with calcium, you know what i mean). i agree that using sugar in a sauce made from fresh ripe tomatoes is unnecessary when the sauce is made properly. but sometimes you have to work with what you have.

when you can find them, buy imported canned Italian tomatoes because they usually do not (San Marzano plum are the best imo)

posted on April 26, 2008 at 12:51 AM

Katie wrote:

I went with 1/4 cup of sugar. Tasted great. Definitely sweet, but not too sweet with the strong cheeses and plenty of pepper.

posted on June 4, 2008 at 7:42 PM

Mike wrote:

I loved this, but I'm not sure why people are getting so worked up about the presence of sugar---even if you're not "supposed" to add it traditionally (which is obviously up for debate), you still need to add it because pecorino, gouda, basil, and tomato paste make a pretty serious flavor combination that needs a little sweetening and lightening. I'd recommend cutting the sugar down to 1/4 cup or even 1/8 cup if you aren't sure. Besides, at the restaurant I worked at in Southern France, the chef always added a pinch of sugar and a few drops of honey to his tomato sauces, and his food was delicious...

posted on June 19, 2008 at 12:47 PM

Alyssa wrote:

I made this dish and it was DELICIOUS. It was nice and rich, but not out of control. However, I have a few pointers to make the lasagna better (aka, I wish I knew this before the first time):
I used a 9"x13" pan, and there wasn't quite enough sauce. Bump the bechamel up to 2 or 2 1/2 cups milk (but don't increase the roux), gradually add some water to the red sauce (I compensated by cooking my pasta very al dente), and use double the ricotta suggested here---I ran out of ricotta on the second layer! Also, this recipe is a little oily. Cut down the oil on the ricotta and the red sauce---1/4 cup in the red sauce is unbelievable, I could have gotten away with less than a tablespoon since not much garlic is being sauteed.

posted on June 28, 2008 at 3:20 PM