Flavor Boosters
If you think of pasta as a blank slate you’ll need some bold colors to splash on—these flavor-packed ingredients are a few of our favorites.
Anchovies
Preserved anchovies are packed with umami-producing glutamates. They also contain other chemical compounds that can magnify the meaty taste of glutamates by up to 15 times. They’re a classic ingredient in puttanesca sauce but make a welcome addition to many pasta dishes. When sauteed they practically melt so you don’t even need to chop them.
Tomato Paste
Tomatoes in all their varied forms add savory qualities to foods, but ultra-concentrated tomato paste is the form that we turn to again and again to build umami. We like to use tomato paste in tandem with canned or fresh tomatoes for a well-rounded tomato sauce. To develop its flavor, sauté tomato paste with onions for 1 to 2 minutes until it darkens and smells fragrant, then deglaze with wine or water and add your other sauce ingredients.
Mushrooms
Mushrooms are so high in umami that they routinely act as a stand-in for meat. But while all mushrooms contribute meaty flavor, dried mushrooms deliver the most umami because they’re more concentrated. We love using dried porcini mushrooms to flavor a classic bolognese sauce, or even make a vegetarian mushroom bolognese to serve with pasta.
Olives
Most olives are fermented or cured in salt or brine to remove oleuropein, the bitter compound that makes them unpalatable straight from the tree. Brine-cured olives are soaked in a salt solution, while salt-cured olives are first packed in salt to extract moisture and oleuropein and then submerged in oil for replumping. Olives have a decidedly meaty texture and salty flavor that makes them a perfect umami enhancer in many meatless dishes like our skillet penne with cherry tomatoes, white beans, and olives.
Aged Cheese
While all cheeses contain umami, in this department aged Parmesan and Pecorino are unparalleled. When grated these cheese melt right into sauces, adding depth, saltiness, flavor, and funk all in one. While the two are fairly interchangeable, Parmesan is a bit cleaner tasting while Pecorino is funkier and a bit saltier. Both are delicious in our cacio e pepe, carbonara, and pasta alla gricia.
