What is Marsala Sauce?
Marsala sauce is a creamy and rich sauce that pairs well with pasta, meat, and seafood. The sauce is loaded with mushrooms and has a touch of thyme and garlic with a hint of acidity to cut the heavy flavor and texture. The sauce has a lovely creamy tan color.
What does Marsala Sauce Taste Like?
Salty is one of the five main tastes. It has a satisfying and addictive quality with hints of sourness. Salty foods include cheeses, cured meats, chips, and olives. It is used in almost every dish and prepared food. Salt is added to enhance flavor and offer a distinctly salty taste.
Umami is one of five main tastes. It is savory with a depth of flavor. Umami is a taste in many foods, including meat, seafood, beans, and nuts. It is both naturally occurring and created through the specific use of ingredients to create a satisfying taste. Umami is characteristic of proteins and savory dishes.
Ingredients
Olive oil is extracted from the fresh olive, which grows on a tree. Many olives are needed in the extraction of the oil. This is done by a mechanical process and sometimes by a chemical process, though the mechanical method is highly preferred. Olive oil is a golden color and changes slightly due to whether it is extra virgin, or first cold pressed. The flavor of olive oil depends on how it was processed. Lower quality oils will taste mild, while high quality olive oils will have a robust flavor that is green, or may have a spicy quality. Extra virgin and first cold pressed or preferred. Olive oil lends a depth of flavor to any savory dish.
The onion is a bulb vegetable, meaning its bulb and not its leaves are eaten. Onions come in many varieties, including white, yellow and red. Shallots are small and mild onions. Vidalias are sweet, while red onions are strong and sharp. The onion is usually round and has a thin dry skin around its juicy layers. This skin depends in the color of the onion, as does the flesh. The flesh, or body of the onion is made of multiple round layers, that get smaller towards the center. The flavor of onions are sharp and sweet when raw, with an astringent taste. When cooked, these flavors mellow and the sweetness emerges. Onion are a very common flavoring and ingredient for many savory dishes.
Garlic is used in cuisines around the world and is extremely popular for its depth of flavor. The garlic bulb forms underneath the soil and is harvested once it reaches maturity. The bulb typically has thin, dry, white and flaky skin, surrounding the individual cloves. Often there are 10-12 cloves to a bulb/head of garlic. The cloves are cream colored with a strong smell and flavor that is spicy and sharp. Garlic takes on a nutty flavor in addition, when cooked. It is used in countless dishes, sauces, breads and more.
Mushrooms are a type of fungus and grow out of soil, or on trees. There are many varieties of mushrooms from white button, portobello, shitake, oyster mushrooms and many more. All mushrooms vary in flavor though most have a mild and earthy flavor that may have buttery notes or a woody taste. The texture of boiled mushrooms are meaty, firm yet soft and a bit spongy. Boiling is a quick method of cooking mushrooms.
All purpose flour comes from wheat and though wheat is cultivated all around the world today, it was first cultivated in Turkey 10,000 years ago. All purpose flour is white in color and has a soft texture. This incredibly versatile flour is used in everything from breads, cakes, pastries, crackers, pasta, sauces and much more because of its pleasing and mild flavor that is slightly nutty and buttery. The gluten protein is what helps hold together breads and other products, part of what makes all purpose wheat flour so popular.
Marsala is a type of fortified wine used mainly in cooking. Dry marsala is used in savory dishes and sweet marsala is used in making desserts. Marsala is a dark red color with flavors of vanilla, apricot, tobacco and brown sugar. Marsala varies in color from gold, amber and ruby. Gold being the driest and ruby being the sweetest. Marsala adds a rich depth of flavor to any dish that it is added to.
Beef stock is made from boiling beef bones in water, often with vegetables and seasonings. The stock boils for twelve to twenty-four hours typically. The result is a brown colored liquid with a thin layer of fat on top. The flavor is rich, meaty and somewhat vegetal. Beef stock is used in soups, sauces, and as a cooking liquid for many dishes.
Salt and pepper is a seasoning mix composed of these two ingredients. Black pepper has a cool and mildly spicy flavor. Salt brings out the flavor in food. This combination is a mix of grey/black and white granules. It is used on many savory dishes to boost the flavor.
