Stop before throwing out homemade tomato sauce to which you accidentally added too much pepper. You can save the sauce by balancing out the spiciness of the pepper with other flavors and diluting it slightly. Tomato sauces are some of the easiest sauces to fix because the tomatoes have natural acidity and sweetness for creating a balance of flavors.
Stir the skinned, seeded and chopped tomatoes into the tomato sauce. Taste the dish for spiciness, and if it still has too heavy a pepper flavor, continue with more additions.
Add a cup of no-salt tomato sauce to the main container of sauce.
Taste the dish. If it tastes too mild, cook at a simmer over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes to reduce it slightly and concentrate the flavors. Do not add more pepper or seasonings.
Remove the sauce from the heat. If it still tastes too spicy from excess pepper, whisk butter, milk or cream into the sauce by 1-tbsp. amounts. Taste the sauce after each spoonful until the sauce reaches the desired level of spiciness.
References
- "Cooking with Spices For Dummies"; Jenna Holst; 2011
- "How to Fix (Just About) Everything: More Than 550 Step-by-Step Instructions for Everything from Fixing a Faucet to Removing Mystery Stains to Curing a Hangover"; Bill Marken; 2002
- "Knack South American Cooking: A Step-by-Step Guide to Authentic Dishes Made Easy"; Liz Caskey, et al.; 2010