There’s a simple ingredient you can add to shop-bought pasta sauce to make it smoother (Image: Getty)
Pasta is a reliable and versatile option for any dinner, no matter if you’re looking for something quick to rustle up after a long day at work or want to impress with a simple but flavoursome meal for friends and family. If you can’t be bothered to make a pasta sauce from scratch, grabbing a jar from the cupboard will usually suffice, but sometimes they can be watery and diluted.
Food writer Patty Lee described a simple addition to her pasta sauce as her go-to, especially if she wants to make the sauce thicker. You probably already have a jar or two in your kitchen cupboard. She wrote for Simply Recipes: “When I’m simply cooking a box of pasta with a jar of marinara and want everyone to leave the table full, I turn to a budget-friendly staple to amp up the protein: canned legumes.”
Tinned legumes like beans and chickpeas can help thicken the sauce without compromising flavour (Image: Getty)
How do legumes help thicken pasta sauces
As legumes are full of complex carbohydrates, their starchy interiors can break down into a creamy, smooth paste. What’s even better is that due to their mild flavour, they won’t disrupt the flavour profile of the sauce.
You can use a wide variety of legumes, like chickpeas, lentils and white beans, such as cannellini beans or butter beans.
Patty explained: “Canned legumes like cannellini beans, chickpeas, and brown or red lentils are naturally packed with complex carbohydrates, dietary fibre, and plant-based protein. When pureed, their starchy interiors break down into a smooth, creamy base that blends seamlessly into pasta sauce.
“Because of their mild flavour profile, the legumes disappear right into the background.”
Not only can blended beans or chickpeas make a pasta sauce smoother and thicker, it can also add nutritional value to it too, helping to increase the fibre and protein content of the sauce.
However, not all beans are created equal. Patty warned against using legumes like black beans, kidney beans, or pinto beans, as the dark skins can compromise the sauce’s colour. They can also have a stronger flavour impact on the sauce, which may change the desired taste.
How to make pasta sauce thicker with beans
Firstly, you should start by draining and rinsing your chosen can of beans or chickpeas in a colander. This will help get rid of any excess salt from the legumes.
Depending on how thick you want your sauce to be, you can add anywhere from half to a full tin of beans. You can blend the legumes directly into the sauce, adding more as you go to get to the desired consistency.
Instead of adding the beans or chickpeas straight into the sauce, use an immersion blender or food processor to blitz them into a smooth puree.
Follow by adding the blended legumes into the pasta sauce, warming over a medium-low heat until the sauce has heated through. Patty warned that adding legumes to the sauce may make the sauce thicker than intended, as the legumes absorb liquid.
To rectify this, simply use a splash of reserved pasta water to loosen it up. If you want to speed up the process further, you can use shop-bought hummus too.
Simply add the hummus to the sauce with a whisk or spoon, heating it up until you reach the desired temperature.
