Pasta Sauces

Bolognese, Alfredo, marinara  .  .  . The sauces with which we are familiar are just a tiny sample of what people in rural areas invented over the centuries to make meals not only pleasant, but varied and flavourful, in times of hunger and scarcity. There are sauces made with cheese or cream, butter or oil, garlic or hot peppers, sage or basil, truffles or mushrooms, fish, seafood or meat, nuts or pesto . . . every village and family has numerous unnamed recipes.

There is even an infinite variety of recipes for the famous "tomato sauce" that has been so popular in Italy since the end of the eighteenth century, and each one was created to complement a particular type of pasta.