The One Ingredient You Should Never, Ever Put In Pasta Sauce

Yahoo

11-05-2025

In the world of food sins, cooking a Wagyu steak well done or drinking a rare Burgundy wine over ice are up there. But there might be an even worse one, according to chef Joe Isidori, co-founder of Black Tap and owner of Arthur & Sons in New York City. "If you're making Sunday gravy with ketchup, I don't know if we can be friends," Isidori told The Takeout. We have to agree.
Ketchup is sweet, tangy, and deeply nostalgic. It's a staple in pantries across the globe and works wonders on fries, meatloaf, and the occasional late-night grilled cheese. But it has absolutely no business mingling with the nuanced, slow-cooked elegance of a proper Italian pasta sauce. If you're a controversial ketchup-on-everything kind of person, consider this a friendly intervention. "Tomato paste and a pinch of sugar is how Nonna did it," Isidori said. "Respect the sauce."
A well-made marinara, Pomodoro, or ragu is all about the balance between sweet and acidic tomatoes, caramelized aromatics, and layers of savory depth from olive oil, garlic, herbs, and thyme. A good Italian cook (or Nonna) coaxes sweetness from tomatoes with a lot of patience and a low simmer. It's the reason why Sicilian grandmothers spend entire Sundays slow-simmering their red sauce. Ketchup, on the other hand, is made in a factory with high-fructose corn syrup, distilled vinegar, and "natural flavoring" -- all of which are intensely concentrated and can easily throw off the sauce's harmony.
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If you've run out of tomato paste and are curious if ketchup is a good substitute, it's not. "Tomato paste is concentrated and gives the sauce body," Isidori confirms. "Ketchup's sweet and vinegary -- it's not built for real sauce." He's right: Ketchup is an entirely different product. It's highly processed and preserved, designed for instant flavor gratification, not slow-cooked complexity. Swapping in ketchup because you're out of tomato paste is like using coffee syrup instead of brown sugar in a barbecue rub. "You can fake it in a pinch," Isidori continued. "But if you're doing things the right way? Keep that bottle on the hot dog cart."
Italian cuisine is rooted in regional pride and generations of know-how. Even the humblest pasta sauce carries with it centuries of refinement. When you add ketchup to a pasta sauce, you're not elevating it; you're insulting it. A proper red gravy should taste like tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, maybe a touch of basil, and grandma's love. Not Heinz. Ketchup belongs on burgers and fries, not in the Soprano family's Sunday sauce. Italian pasta sauces thrive on simplicity, integrity, and a deep respect for the ingredients. The next time you're tempted to doctor up a sauce with ketchup, remember that sometimes the best cooking decision is knowing when to leave well enough alone.
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