Can You Actually Save Burnt Tomato Sauce? A Chef Weighs In

Homemade tomato sauce is a delicious way to preserve your late-summer tomatoes for months to come — which makes it all the more devastating when you burn it. 

What’s a home cook to do? Be honest with yourself, says 1990 F&W Best New Chef Nancy Silverton, owner of the sprawling Mozza Restaurant Group. “Sometimes you just have to part with [your tomato sauce] because it’s going to taste too burnt,” she says. “But if you catch it in the nick of time and [the burnt flavor] is very subtle, then I find it can be salvageable.” Here’s Silverton’s advice for preventing scalded tomato sauce in the first place, and a few tricks for saving a burnt sauce.

Start with a sweet tomato

There’s not one specific tomato that’s best for tomato sauce — you can use fresh ripe tomatoes that have been cored, blanched, and chopped; pureed whole peeled canned tomatoes; or crushed tomatoes — but you’ll want to make sure whatever you’re using is sweet and ripe to avoid a bitter, acidic flavor.

Common saucing tomatoes include Roma or other paste tomatoes thanks to their relatively few seeds, but you can use any ripe tomatoes with dense flesh. Silverton also swears by Bianco DiNapoli canned tomatoes, whether whole or crushed. “They’re tomatoes that are grown in northern California to mimic the San Marzano, where the sweet tomatoes come from in southern Italy. They’re consistent and a sure bet,” she says. 

Stir constantly over low heat in a heavy-duty pot

Take your time when making tomato sauce to ensure it doesn’t burn; it might take an hour or more to reduce. “[There’s] no sense in rushing that tomato sauce,” says Silverton. “Let it cook over a low flame; reduce very, very slowly; and stir it constantly.” She suggests a wide and tall, heavy-duty pot that will conduct heat evenly for the job, such as a stainless steel stockpot. While the exact size will depend on the quantity of sauce you’re making, leave a good four inches at the top, and avoid aluminum, which will react with the acidity in the tomatoes and cause an unpleasant flavor. 

Silverton also likes to stir the sauce with a wooden spoon rather than a heatproof spatula or metal spoon, although she can’t explain why. “It just feels like that’s what my Italian grandmother, if I had one, would be using,” she says with a laugh. 

If your sauce burns, get it out of the pot immediately

If you detect a burnt smell or the edges of your sauce start to look dry, it might be burnt. “The first thing you want to do is stop the cooking immediately, and you want to pour it into another pot or a bowl, any way to get it out of that pot,” says Silverton. “You absolutely do not want to scrape anything that’s on the bottom of the pot,” she adds. 

Salvage with sugar, an acidic ingredient, or this unexpected pantry staple

Although you can’t “un-burn” tomato sauce, you can try to balance the flavor with other ingredients. Silverton suggests stirring in a little sugar, a trick that works with any kind of sauce that tastes burnt or bitter. You can also use an acidic ingredient like lemon juice or even vinegar to help neutralize the burnt flavor. “I’ll add a splash of red wine vinegar, which can make the flavor seem intentional,” says Silverton. Finally, she recommends a little smoked paprika, which can double down on the subtle burnt flavor. “It can make your palate confused,” she explains.

Confused palate or no, your sauce will still taste delicious.