Yummy Pasta Sauces !

There are many sauces from the northern part of Italy to the southern part of the peninsula.

1)Tomato sauce (basically the same for all of the country )
2)Bolognaise Sauce (Ragu , from Bolognia )
3)Saltata (hot sauce from the south )

Tomato Sauce
Tomato sauce is an Italian classic and there is nothing better than to prepare it yourself. The recipe is straightforward, the ingredients are extremely easy to find and it is also very cheap to make. If you do not have time to prepare this sauce in the traditional way, a faster way is to buy a can of chopped tomatoes or whole peeled tomatoes. Nowadays, there are some canned tomatoes producers (thanks goodness!) that can give you organic chopped tomatoes without any chemical additives or pesticides in them.

THIS IS TO TOP 400 g OF PASTA (serves 4)
Ingredients:

8 Tomatoes - medium size (you can use whole peeled tomatoes in can if in a hurry)
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt for seasoning
Alternatively:

A can of chopped tomatoes
Half red onion 80 ml (3 fl oz)
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt for seasoning
Directions:

Take a large pan full of water, bring the water to boil, put the tomatoes into the pan and boil for 2-3 minutes until you see some cracks on the tomatoes skin.

Meanwhile, finely chop half red onion.



Peel all the tomatoes with your fingers or, if they are too hot, with the aid of a small knife. The skin will come off easily without any problem.

Half the tomatoes and roughly scoop out the core and seeds. I suggest collecting the scooped out tomatoes into a small container.

Put the cleaned tomatoes into a bowl and sieve the contents of the container over the bowl (pressing down with a spoon to extract more juice).

Finally, you should have only seeds and cores in the sieve. These can be discarded.

Using a simple masher, roughly press down in order to break the tomatoes (why use fancy tools when you do not need to). For those who wish to have a thinner sauce, like the “passata di pomodoro”, I suggest to use a food mill.
Heat the olive oil over a low/medium heat.

When the oil is hot, add the onion.

Saute the onion until it gets golden.

When the onion is golden, add the tomatoes. As I said before, if you have not prepared the tomatoes yourself, just add the chopped tomatoes from the can.

Stir gently and let the sauce reduce over low heat for about 25-30 minutes.

Now, the most important part! Season with salt, stir for few seconds and taste it to check if you need to add a little more salt. The other important thing is to check the level of acidity (depending of the tomato quality and variety, you can have varying levels of acidity). Normally the onion brings this level down, but if you think that the sauce is a bit to acidic, then you can correct this by adding a pinch of sugar; that’s it!

Use the tomato sauce to top pasta or gnocchi.

Bolognese Sauce(Ragu) (serves 4 )
Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. ground veal or lamb
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 large onion, chopped
4 - 6 cloves of garlic....depending on your love for garlic and how much your family can stand
1/4 cup vegetable broth
2 carrots, peeled and sliced and 1 cup of chopped celery
1 16 oz. can whole tomatoes with/ juice
salt & pepper to taste
1 kilo pasta of choice
Parmesan cheese for grating on top


Have all your meats ready to go and start a big pot of water boiling.
Peel and dice the onion. Then peel and finely chop the garlic. Peel the carrots and chop them .Chop the celery .

In a large sauce pot, brown the chopped beef and (veal or lamb), drain fat and reserve meat for later.
In the same pot, sauté onion and garlic in the olive oil & butter until the onions are translucent.

Puree the whole tomatoes and add them to the pot along with the chopped carrots ,celery and reserved meat.
Simmer for about 1 1/2 hours. (If the sauce become too dry add a little water or chicken/vegetable stock)
Salt and Pepper to taste.
In a big pot of salted boiling water, cook pasta al dente.
Serve sauce over pasta with grated cheese. (Parmigiano Regiano)

Saltata in Padella

In a large pot put water to boil. Add 1 Tbs. salt .

Ingredients:

1 1/2 tbs.Extra Vergine Olive Oil

5-7 chili green peppers

3-4 cloves of garlic

1/2 Tbs red cayenne pepper (less if desired )

500 gms. spaghetti

*Tomato sauce previously prepared

In a large frying pan or wok, heat the olive oil and saute the pepers and garlic on high flame. As soon as peppers change colour( don't let garlic burn )add tomato sauce immediately. Turn heat off.

Now cook the spaghetti for only three minutes and drain (less than al dente because it will finish cooking in the sauce) Add to sauce in wok and cook for another 5 minutes. Turn heat off and serve immediately with green peppers on the side.

BUON APPETITO !