A Tour of Italy - Traditional Italian Pasta Sauces with Chef Fred
Spend an afternoon learning traditional Italian pasta sauces with Chef Frederick
F. Butters, FAIA, Esq. This demonstration class will cover multiple recipes in
detail. Learn to make these fabulous savory concoctions, enjoy samples, and
take home detailed recipes along with the knowledge and ability to make them
for your family and friends to enjoy.
$100.00 per person. All proceeds benefit AIA Detroit Executive Director Lauren
Myrand to assist with uninsured medical and other expenses.
Fred has studied with a number of accomplished local chefs, including Certified
Master Chef Jeffrey Gabriel, Certified Master Pastry Chef Joseph Decker,
Certified Executive Chef / Certified Executive Pastry Chef Marcus Haight, and
Brian Polcyn of the Five Lakes Grill and more recently the Forrest Grill. An
accomplished teacher, he brings that wealth of experience to this class
1:00 p.m., Sunday November 6, 2016, at Professional Concepts Insurance
offices, 1127 S. Old US Hwy 23, Brighton, Michigan, 48114.
Thank you to our hosts Kim Fricke and Mike Cosgrove
​
Overview
While pasta is enjoyed worldwide, it finds its greatest home in Italy. Indeed the
pasta itself is simply a backdrop for the flavors imparted by the sauce.
Unfortunately, what Americans consider “pasta sauce” is entirely foreign to most
Italians (indeed the pasta itself is simply a backdrop for the flavors imparted by
the sauce). We will begin to change that.
Italy is a unique country in that it the climate changes dramatically over even
short distances. Historically, people ate what they were able to grow such that
regional climate differences manifested in their food. Even beyond the 3 major
regions from which Italian cuisine is drawn, Italy was for most of its history a
series of city states – most Americans are surprised to learn that Italy as a
country unified under one flag is younger than the United States. Those
differences with the 3 major regions contribute further to culinary diversity.
Northern Italy
The climate in the north of Italy is very similar to that seen in northern Europe.
Grasslands and pastures are abundant, and the climate lends itself well to the
cultivation of cattle such that veal, butter, and cheese predominate.
Unfortunately, the climate is not conducive to cultivation of the best olives so
while olive oil is available, reliance on olive oils is not as manifest. Other
common ingredients include other animal products such as sausage and salami.
Central Italy
While central Italy enjoys at least some of the benefits of those living further
north, the climate allows much broader cultivation of quality olives such that olive
oils are far more abundant. While cattle are not as common, the range of
vegetables available is far broader resulting in a greater reliance on vegetables in
the regional cuisine. Common ingredients include legumes, bread (owing to the
fact that wheat is readily cultivated), cheeses, mushrooms, and an increased use
of fresh fruits
Southern Italy
Southern Italy is much hotter than its more northern brethren, and as a
consequence cattle are scarce, as are the dairy products they produce. The
range of fruits and vegetables is vast, and includes eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes,
onions, peppers and olives (indeed, this region is believes to produce the best
produce available anywhere). In addition, while beef is limited, owing to its
location on the Mediterranean, this region enjoys abundant seafood.
The History of Pasta
No one is really certain who invented pasta, but it seems to have appeared at
about the same time in Italy and China. In all likelihood, pasta appeared in Italy
as the populous learned it from Arabic or North African countries (North African
being less than 60 miles from Sicily, there is a fair amount of culinary crossover)
Fresh pasta was of course the origin, and there was a lot of controversy over
fresh and dried in pasta history. Anything but fresh pasta was considered old
food and should be discarded. Pasta snobs believed it was made with bad,
substandard or old flour. It took many years before dried pasta migrated to the
North from Sicily.
Northern Italians looked down upon such foods. Southerners, as far as Italian
food history is concerned, were considered peasant farmers, but they are
responsible for some of our most delicious and popular Italian pasta recipes
today. Much like most foods in the world that we consider "comfort foods" or
"traditional foods" came from the kitchens of what most considered peasants. A
major ingredient in pasta is durum wheat, and to this day Sicily is believed to
produce the best in the world.
Pasta Sauce
Pasta itself of course requires a sauce to create an appetizing meal. While many
Americans believe that tomatoes were an Italian contribution to the culinary
lexicon, they are in fact of Spanish origin (for an Italian contribution, look to
garlic). Indeed, tomato sauce is one of the 5 “mother sauces” to which the
French lay claim.
It is an American misconception that the tomato has been central to Italian
cuisine. The tomato was introduced from the Spanish New World to Europeans
in the 16th century, and while tomato sauce does appear in Italian cuisine, it
made a relatively late entry. In Antonio Latini’s cookbook Lo scalco alla moderna
(published in 1692), Latini (who was at one time chef to the Spanish viceroy of
Naples) includes a recipe for a tomato sauce alla spagnuola, or "in the Spanish
style". The use of tomato sauce with pasta appears for the first time in the Italian
cookbook L'Apicio moderno, by Roman chef not published until 1790.
Suffice it to say that Italian cuisine does include pasta and pasta sauces, and it
does include red or tomato sauces, but pasta slathered in red sauce as most
Americans think of it today is decidedly “un-Italian”. Indeed, Italian cuisine also
includes traditional meat sauces, but that meat sauce does not consist of a
tomato base with some browned hamburger thrown in.
We will examine a few of these more common traditional Italian pasta sauces.
Pasta
Pasta itself comes in a vast array of shapes and forms, each of which has unique
characteristics and uses. Indeed, over 310 specific shapes known variably by
over 1300 names having been documented. For example, the form commonly
known as “cavatelli” is known by at least 28 different names depending on region
and town
The sauce and the type of pasta are usually matched based on consistency and
ease of eating. For example, angel hair is delicate and requires a light sauce to
work well where a hearty sauce will overpower it rather than mesh with it. On the
opposite end of the scale, Orecchiette, Fusilli, Rigatoni and Penne are hearty
enough to stand up to and mesh well with a more rustic sauce
In addition to flour based pastas, other binders can be used. For example,
potatoes or ricotta cheese is often used for gnocchi. Technically gnocchi is not
so much pasta as it is a small dumpling, but the cooking and the use are often
the same.
This class will cover;
Pasta basics, including pasta selection and traditional pasta cooking and
preparation methods (unfortunately covering the preparation of fresh pasta would
take another entire day so we will be limited to the dried versions).
We will cover the more traditional sauces including a meat sauce (a “ragu”), a
marinara, a traditional tomato sauce (including the differences between the two),
and one additional sauce (a Carbonara) which often falls outside of the general
thinking. In addition, we will demonstrate an easy method for preparing fresh
tomatoes for use in a sauce.
Learn the differences between a few of the traditional pasta sauces, enjoy
samples, and take home a detailed guide so you can make these wonderful
examples at home. You will never buy canned pasta sauce again.
Join us for the fun.
Ragù alla bolognese
Ragù alla bolognese, is the traditional Italian meat sauce originating from the
Bologna region in central Italy. While it is sometimes used for lasagna, it can
also commonly be used with other broad, flat pasta shapes, such as pappardelle
or fettuccine. Tagliatelle is most often paired with this sauce.
Ragù alla bolognese is slowly cooked, and its ingredients include a characteristic
onion, celery and carrot, different types of minced or finely chopped beef, often
alongside small amounts of fatty pork. Wine and a small amount of tomato
concentrate are added, and the dish is then gently simmered at length to produce
a thick sauce. A far cry from what most Americans think of as “meat sauce”
The earliest documented recipe for a meat-based sauce (a “ragu”) served with
pasta comes from late 18th century lmola, near Bologna. Pellergino Artusi
published a recipe for a meat sauce characterized as being “bolognese” in his
1891 cookbook. Artusi's recipe, which he called Maccheroni alla bolognese, is
thought to derive from the mid 19th century when he spent considerable time in
Bologna. The recipe only partially resembles the ragù alla bolognese that later
became traditionally associated with tagliatelle.
The sauce called for predominantly lean beef or veal, along with pancetta, butter,
onion, and carrot. The meats and vegetables are cooked until browned, then
covered and cooked with broth. Artusi commented that the taste could be made
even more pleasant by adding small pieces of dried mushroom, a few slices of
truffle, or chicken livers, diced and cooked with the meat. As a final touch, he
also suggested adding half a glass of cream to the sauce when it was completely
done to smooth the taste.
Artusi recommended serving this sauce with medium size pasta (which he called
"horse teeth") made from durum wheat.
Pasta alla Carbonara
As with many recipes, the origins of the dish and its name are obscure.
There are many theories for the origin of the name, which may be more recent
than the dish itself. Since the name is derived from carbonaro (the Italian word
for charcoal burner), some believe the dish was first made as a hearty meal for
Italian charcoal workers. In parts of the United States the etymology gave rise to
the term "coal miner's spaghetti". It has even been suggested that it was created
as a tribute to the Carbonari, a secret society prominent in the early repressed
stages of Italian unification.
It seems more likely that it is an urban dish from Rome, although it has nothing to
do with the Roman restaurant of the same name.
Pasta alla Carbonara was included in Elizabeth David’s's Italian Food, an
English-language cookbook published in in 1954. However, the dish is not
present in Ada Boni's 1927 classic La Cucina Romana and is unrecorded before
WWII. In 1950 it was described in the Italian newspaper "La Stampa" as a dish
sought by the American officers after the allied liberation of Rome in 1944. It was
first described after the war as a Roman dish, when many Italians were eating
eggs and bacon supplied by troops from the US.
Unlike some of the other recipes there really is no such thing as a
Carbonara “sauce” that is cooked separately from the pasta.
instead always cooked directly with the pasta itself.
Carbonara is
Salsa Marinara
Loosely translated, “Marinara” means “mariner's sauce” which originated in
Naples. Marinara is made with olive oil, ripe tomatoes, a substantial hit of garlic,
a pinch of dried chile and dried oregano (or, in more modern times, fresh basil).
Its many variations include capers, olives, and various spices. This sauce is
widely used in Italian-American cuisine, and as Americans think of it today it has
greatly diverged greatly from its origins.
Italians refer to marinara sauce only in association with other recipes. For
instance, spaghetti alla marinara literally translates to "spaghetti mariner's style"
(from the adjective marinara with the feminine suffix - a pertaining to “salsa”, or
Italian for “sauce”).
Several theories are given as to the origin of this sauce. One version suggests
that cooks aboard Neapolitan ships invented marinara sauce in the mid-16th
century after Spaniards introduced the tomato (a new world fruit) to Europe.
Although modern variants sometimes contain seafood, the original didn’t, so it
was resistant to spoilage due to the high acid content of tomatoes. That
characteristic made it ideal for lengthy sea voyages hundreds of years before
refrigeration. Another theory states this was a sauce prepared by the wives of
Neapolitan sailors upon their return from sea.
Marinara became a catchall term for tomato sauce in this country because its
ingredients are all plentiful in Campania, the area around Naples that sent so
many families to the United States in the last century. Italian-American cooks
treated it as a multifunctional ingredient: a starting point for other sauces, the
base of a soup, the acid that breaks down meat in a stew. Strictly speaking it is a
simple sauce and it does not contain onions, wine, meatballs, anchovies, tomato
paste or butter. The feeling should be quick and light, and one should appreciate
the feeling of tomatoes in the mouth.
While there is nothing wrong with a slow cooked tomato sauce (see next recipie),
such a sauce is not a Marinara
Salsa Di Pomodoro (Tomato Sauce)
The tomato in Italy has a convoluted history. It’s hard to trace, but there are some
key dates and places to keep in mind. For one, the tomato is not indigenous to
Europe, though the Europeans certainly have found innumerable delicious ways
to serve it. As far as we know, the first tomatoes to make it to Europe were
brought by the Spanish Conquistadors from South America (Peru, specifically) in
the early to mid-sixteenth
That aside, the word “tomato” has become synonymous with Italy and Italian
cuisine.
For a time tomatoes were believed to be poisonous, but the reason was traced to
the lead in the pewter tableware found in the more affluent homes. The lead was
picked up – particularly by acidic foods (as tomatoes of course are) - and caused
lead poisoning and death. Tomatoes therefore became a food of the poor. Since
they ate form wooden plates and utensils, they didn’t suffer the same problems.
As a consequence, tomatoes remained a food eaten primarily by the poor until
the 1800s.
The expansion of the tomato as a food was likely the result of the emigration of
Italians to the New World in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At that time,
particularly in New York, Italian Americans yearned for the dishes of the Old
World, which led to canning and international distribution of peeled tomatoes.
Tomatoes didn’t make their way to North America for quite some time, coming via
Europe as they did. Indeed, some historians thank Thomas Jefferson for bringing
tomato seeds back from a sojourn in Paris. Indeed, with Italian immigrants came
pizza, and there is no pizza without tomato sauce
Many varieties of tomatoes can be found in Italy, yet the best known for sauces
and pastes are those grown in the San Marzano region, located just outside
Naples. This is not to say San Marzano tomatoes are the undisputed best
tomatoes, but rather that they have the most storied history, primarily in the
United States, as they served as the original export tomatoes some 100 years
ago. San Marzano tomatoes today enjoy protected status by the European
Union.
Although pasta with tomato sauce is a relative newcomer to Italian cuisine, it has
nevertheless become a firmly established staple
Thank you for your patronage and for your contributions to an important cause
Frederick F. Butters, PLLC
26677 West 12 Mile Road
Southfield, Michigan 48034
(248) 357-0831
(248) 514-4694 (cell)
[email protected]