Please Pass the Salt
eeeeks! Are you cringing right now? Has your mouth just gone dry looking at this image? If so then good… I’ve done my job. The reason I’m writing this post is to address the misuse of salt. We’re a salt crazy nation that has done a terrific job at masking good, pure, delicious food with salt, fat and sugar. It’s out of control! Don’t get me wrong, salt is a wonderful seasoning and helps accentuate many dishes but it can be your worst enemy as well! I can’t begin to tell you how many sauces I’ve destroyed because I didn’t listen to my acute (ha) senses and simply leave a sauce, soup or ragout alone. A perfect example is tomato sauce. For some reason the acidity and sweetness in tomatoes covers salt while it’s still hot. When it cools down the sodium levels really come through and there is NOTHING you can do but weep if over salted.
Restaurants are the biggest offenders and are notorious for heavy salty hands. If you ask most professional cooks to name the one ingredient that is used the most in kitchens it’s SALT! It goes like this “Hey Kev, could you taste the sauce that I made for the chicken and see if it needs anything?” “sure Bob… (finger in pot and inserted in mouth) hmmm, tastes good but needs some acid and… salt!” and then when you order the chicken dish later that night you might feel that Bob should have left the finger lickin chicken sauce alone!
To get the bottom of the salt lick and uncover the why; we need to get a little scientific. Your mouth and tongue has all kinds of receptor cells that basically get stimulated when it comes into contact with certain foods and seasoning. Taste is the function that your mouth performs when recognizing these chemical properties. Taste is composed of sweet, salty, sour and bitter and most recently umami that defines certain taste components that are barely perceptible (I’m not getting into this right now.. too long)…. But basically the more you have of one taste component, like salt, it makes a dish off balanced.. and then the tongue and mouth send signals to the brain that something is off.
Not to get side tracked here… the absolute main point that I want to address is how to approach a dish that you are making. You really want to taste the sweetness in corn and tomatoes or the vegetative properties in asparagus or even the flesh in a cut of meat. It’s all a balancing act and really important to realize that salt only plays a supporting role. If fava beans with shaved pecorino and olive oil are the lead actors then salt is cop #3. Just there to add to the story… that’s it! Below is a recipe for un-salted tomato sauce. The thing to realize here is that it uses canned tomatoes that already has added salt and sugar; as so many packaged products do. Think about it, it already contains trace amounts of sodium and sugar and has sweet (tomato), bitter (eggplant) and fennel (flavor booster) with heaps of other aromatic properties. It’s loaded like a gun with flavor, so why add more salt? You try the recipe and let me know… in the mean time use salt with a delicate hand and enjoy more genuine flavors from your food.
This is Chef Stephen from the HOG laboratory
Un-salted Tomato Sauce with Fennel and Fried Eggplant
Serves 6 people
Ingredients
3 tablespoons pure olive oil
1 medium size yellow onion, diced
1 bulb of fennel, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 cup dry red wine
6 cloves garlic
4 cups canned San Marzano plum tomatoes or canned Italian tomatoes
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 small Italian eggplants
1/2 bunch of fresh basil
pepper
Instructions
In a medium to large sauce pot add the pure olive oil and bring up to medium low. Add the onions, carrots and fennel and cook until soft (approx 15 minutes). Add tomato paste and stir into veggies. Cook mixture for 5 minutes, constantly stirring so that you don’t burn the paste. Add wine and reduce until liquid has disappeared. Take off the heat and set aside.
Poach the garlic cloves in the olive oil over low heat until the garlic begins to lightly brown. Add the tomatoes, the onion fennel mixture and 1/2 of the basil. Simmer for about one hour, adding a few tablespoons of water at a time to prevent the sauce from drying out. Continue to stir as the sauce simmers.
Throw a large cast iron skillet on medium high heat and add 1/4 cup pure olive oil. When it starts to lightly smoke add the eggplant. Cook on each side until it gets dark brown and crispy (approx 1 minute per each side). Remove and drain eggplant on paper towel; then chop. Fold into sauce.
Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Chop the remaining basil and add to the sauce. DO-NOT season with salt! Only some fresh ground pepper.
Eat with pasta or spoon over toasted baguette.
Tags: eggplant, fennel, salt, tomato sauce