Anne Willan

Pasta Sauces

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top 1000La Varenne Pratique
La Varenne Pratique

By Anne Willan

Published 1989

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A pasta sauce may simply be spooned on top of cooked pasta, it may be tossed with the pasta, baked with it or served separately. The hallmark of any good pasta sauce is a full, concentrated flavor. For boiled pasta, the sauce should be used sparingly (a couple of tablespoons is usually sufficient for a portion) and ideally there should be enough to coat the pasta without leaving excess sauce in the bowl.

A few key ingredients distinguish the different categories of pasta sauce. Sauces based on olive oil include briciolata, in which breadcrumbs are sautéed in a generous quantity of oil until crisp, then seasoned with salt and plenty of black pepper. There are also sauces that combine olive oil with garlic and anchovy, or with puréed raw ingredients such as herbs and nuts. Pesto sauce, flavored with basil, oil and garlic is the best-known example. Even these simple ingredients are an unnecessary addition, as plain pasta with melted butter, or a bubbling high-quality olive oil is hard to beat.