Regional Italian and Sicilian pasta sauces - Cover Story

Vegetarian Journal, Nov-Dec, 2001 by Nancy Berkoff

Sauce: The one infallible sign of civilization and enlightenment. A people with no sauces has one thousand vices; a people with one sauce has only nine hundred and ninety-nine. For every sauce invented and accepted a vice is renounced and forgiven.

-- Ambrose Bierce

Sauces can be spooned on top of pasta, tossed with it, baked with it, or served separately. No matter how they are presented, pasta sauces are best when they are full flavored and full textured.

Italian sauces can be categorized by the ingredients they contain. Some olive oil-based sauces are briciolata (bread crumbs are sauteed in olive oil until crisp, seasoned with black pepper), pesto (olive oil pureed with raw basil, garlic, and pine nuts), or aglio e olio (high-quality olive oil combined with sauteed garlic).

Dairy-based sauces include Alfredo, paglia e fieno (which translates to "straw and hay," and is made with a combination of peas, cream, and spinach), and carbonara (a Roman sauce of eggs, cheese, and bacon). Vegan dairy sauces can be made with vegan soy cream. (Westsoy and other companies makes soy coffee creamers that can be used as substitutes for light dairy cream.) If soy creams are not available near you, soy sour cream can be thinned with soymilk to be used as a tangy cream substitute. Another alternative is to reduce soy or rice milk. This is done by slowly cooking the milk, stirring occasionally, until the total volume is reduced by one-third to one-half the original volume. This allows a lot of the water to evaporate, concentrating the flavor and the texture.

Tomato-based sauces, popular in Bologna and Naples, include tomatoes, wine, broth, garlic, chopped vegetables, and fresh or dried herbs as ingredients. Sugo di pomodoro fresco is a fresh tomato sauce, good to serve with freshly cooked pasta. It is an uncooked sauce, a simple combination of chopped tomatoes, green onions, garlic, basil, and oregano, with a dash of olive oil. Salsa napoletana is a cooked tomato sauce, meant to accompany both pasta and vegetables. Chopped onions, carrots, and celery are sauteed in olive oil, combined with wine and tomatoes, and seasoned with oregano, thyme, and pepper. It is allowed to simmer until very concentrated.

Another uncooked sauce is salsa verde. It can be made entirely in a blender or food processor. Fresh bread crumbs (not dried) are soaked in vinegar and then processed with fresh parsley, capers, garlic, and olive oil. Serve this with hot or cold pasta or vegetables.

Many sauces are very simple, but high fat, combinations. Aglio e olio is a classic example, a combination of olive oil and sauteed garlic. Burro e salvia (butter and sage sauce) is simply melted butter to which whole sage leaves are added and cooked until crisp. Primavera sauce is a combination of heavy cream and butter, to which chopped springtime vegetables are added.

High or low in fat, Italian sauces are meant to be used sparingly, to merely coat or "kiss" the pasta or vegetables. Traditionally, sauces are concentrated in flavor, meant to impart lots of zest with a small amount of volume. Sauce should be spooned lightly or tossed with pasta or vegetables right before serving, to showcase the texture of the pasta and the flavor of the sauce. Left to sit, texture turns soggy and the flavor dulls.

It's important to remember that the sauce should match the shape of the pasta. Each shape goes well with particular types of sauce. Spaghetti goes well with creamy or tomato-based sauce, while thinner pastas, such as vermicelli, linguine, and angel hair are better suited for olive oil-based sauces. Both thick and thin pastas go well with strongly flavored sauces, such as a tomato sauce flavored with garlic or red pepper flakes. Tube pastas, such as ziti, rigatoni, or penne go well with thick sauces, such as a tomato and vegetable sauce. Filled pastas, such as gnocchi, ravioli, and tortellini, need to have the sauce complement the filling; light sauces complement delicately flavored ravioli, and heavier sauces can keep up with heartier pastas. For example, a basil-and-garlic-filled ravioli goes well with a salsa verde, while an Alfredo sauce goes well with a tofu-and-walnut-filled tortellini.

Dessert pastas require special sauces. A poppyseed lasagna, popular in Northern Italy, would be served with a butter- (or vegan margarine-) based sauce. Hot buttered pasta is sometimes tossed with cocoa powder, golden raisins, candied orange peel, cinnamon, and sweet bread crumbs. In Northern Italy, buttered pasta is tossed with chopped nuts, sugar, and lemon zest. Fettucini can be served with a fruit puree, as can a dried fruit and nut lasagna.

Generally, white or cream sauces have a cream and butter base. You can do a vegan version with vegan margarine and soymilk (not lowfat, but lower fat; for authenticity, you don't want to eliminate all the fat). To make a basic white sauce, you will need a roux, a mixture of equal parts of fat and flour. To make one cup of white sauce, melt one tablespoon of vegan margarine and mix with one Table-spoon of flour to form a paste. Heat one cup of soymilk over medium heat. Quickly whisk in the roux, stirring hard, to avoid lumps and to maximize thickening. Remove the sauce from the stove, strain, and return to the stove. (Straining ensures smoothness.) Bring to a quick boil, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens to the texture you like. Once you have the basic sauce, you can make it sweet or savory. For an espresso sauce, whisk in coffee powder and vanilla extract. Sherry, sweet white wine, Marsala, or liqueurs such as amaretto can also be used to flavor and sweeten dessert sauces. Savory white sauces, such as Alfredo or primavera, are usually made with cream, cheese, and butter. Prepare a vegan version with soy- or rice-based cheese, soy sour cream, and vegan margarine or olive oil.