Three ingredients, thirty minutes
We need to discuss butter sauce. I have ripped it off wholesale: first from Salt & Fat, who I later learned ripped it off from Marcella Hazan. Still, people believe that I have come down from the mountain to teach the people:
“I dream of your pasta.” “I cried eating your pasta.” “I stopped buying store-bought pasta sauce. Now I just come over here all the time.” “The worst thing about winter in Chicago is you don’t make as much pasta.”
I am not the gatekeeper of pasta. I am a person who has three ingredients and knows how to source them. I have been saying for a decade: you can do this, too. You want to know how many people have served me pasta with red sauce in that time? Or how many people have told me they attempted this recipe in that time? Zero.
Butter sauce
- 28oz canned or 2lb fresh roma or san marzano tomatoes
- White onion
- A half stick of butter
Peel and halve the white onion. Throw everything together on medium-high. Once it gets to a simmer, throw it back to medium-low. Crush the tomatoes with your spatula or a potato masher as you go. Stir every few minutes.
After 30 minutes, remove the onion: it’s done its job. Salt to taste.
Notes
Yes, you can throw literally anything else in this. My own variation most commonly includes pimenton, red hatch powder, black pepper, a peeled head of garlic, and a fistful of whole basil.
The general rule for finding good dried pasta is this. You’re going to decant your pasta into a big container. Most people do. If there’s a powdery residue, that’s flour. That means it’s made traditionally and by hand. That also means that the pasta’s texture will be a little rougher, which gives the sauce more surface area to stick to. That is a good thing. Brand-wise, Rusticella d’Abruzzo, Afeltra, and Martelli are good, but I’m sure I’m omitting dozens of other options.
Immersion blend it if you want a smooth sauce. I always immersion blend.
Other things you can add include:
- Whatever Italian herbs you have laying around, natch. I like tying a bunch of rosemary up with twine and removing it after simmering.
- Cremini. I would sauté any fungi in butter at max heat for a few minutes separately, and add it after immersion blending.
- A carrot at the beginning if you don’t have much time and you want to thicken it.
- Ground meat. I brown it with the butter before adding everything else.
- A de-ribbed & de-seeded jalapeño adds a nice vegetal, floral component. Serrano or poblano work well. Bonus points if you roast ‘em ahead of time.
But really, your first time around, just do the basic thing. Know what you’re working with. Then add stuff next time.
The difference between you & your Italian grandmother is that she has her own variation on this that she spent a half-century perfecting. Her recipe has two pounds of tomatoes, a halved white onion, and a half stick of butter, too.
Please make this
You can make this when tomatoes aren’t in season. You can make this with the bare minimum of ingredients. You don’t need pasta to make this; you can toss it with roasted veggies, coat a hunk of meat with it, or serve it on top of an inch-thick slab of toasted sourdough. You can make this whenever you feel like it, and throw it in the freezer for later. You can top it with parm, or not. The ingredients are, like, $8.
If you like Italian food, you have to make this yourself. No coming over to my house. I know I do it well. I guess you can ask me questions, but I’m also pretty sure that I just gave you everything that you need to know.
Every food system has a building block: some combination of 3 to 5 ingredients that forms the backbone of millions of dishes. Japan has soy sauce, mirin, dashi, and sake. France has its mother sauces. This is Italy’s. Have fun.