You can almost feel sorry for pasta sauces that are not made with tomatoes. They are ignored, forgotten, belittled. Though endless in variety, they are like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Pasta: They don't get to play any non-tomato pasta-sauce games.
So this week, I decided to take a look at these unsung heroes, the panoply of pasta sauces that are made without tomatoes.
I wanted the sauces I made to be quick and simple, too. Nothing too strenuous; I wanted them to be sauces you could whip up while you are getting the water ready to boil for the pasta.
Non-tomato sauces can be loaded with seafood, vegetables, nuts and herbs; they can be made with olive oil, butter and cream.
But I didn't want to make my sauces with cream. Though cream is utterly delicious with pasta, it is also a little too easy. More to the point, it has more calories than I wanted to consume — especially considering I was going to be making five different kinds of pasta.
For my first fast and easy tomato-free pasta sauce, I made the fastest and easiest sauce there is. Spaghettini aglio e olio — Spaghettini With Oil and Garlic — is universal throughout Italy; it is perhaps the most comforting of all Italian comfort foods, a simple blend of olive oil, garlic, parsley, crushed red pepper and plenty of salty grated cheese.
According to the late famed cookbook author Marcella Hazan, Spaghettini With Oil and Garlic was created in Rome and quickly spread throughout the country. It was then, and still is now, a hugely popular late-night snack — but it also makes a fine lunch or dinner.
I next made a variation on that same dish, but the variation makes an enormous difference.
One of my favorite pasta sauces is made by dissolving anchovy fillets in hot olive oil. Spaghetti is tossed in the flavored oil, which gives it a rich and rounded briny flavor. Spaghetti With Capers takes that idea and adds a different kind of brininess, this time from capers.
The capers add a pungency to the dish, which is great if you, like me, love capers. But if you find the taste of capers unpleasant, you could leave them out and just make the spaghetti with anchovies.
Both are excellent, and don't forget to serve them with Parmesan cheese. You might think that a salty cheese would be unnecessary with anchovies and capers, but it brings the flavors together. It is like sprinkling the dish with magic.
The most popular pasta sauce right now among those in the know is probably Cacio e Pepe. Made from cheese (cacio) and pepper (pepe) and very little else (olive oil), the sauce is ridiculously fast and easy to make.
You don't even cook it. You mix together good cheese — the quality of the cheese counts with this dish — a healthy amount of ground pepper and olive oil. Then you stir in hot, just-cooked pasta and a little bit of the water you cooked it in.
That's the whole dish. And it could not taste better.
For my next fast tomato-free pasta sauce, I went in a different direction. I went nuts.
Nutty Pasta isn't even Italian; it is a French dish served most often in Provence. It is pesto with a twist. Instead of basil, it is made with parsley and mint (which is related to basil). Instead of pine nuts alone, it is made with pine nuts and almonds and pistachios.
Think of it: Pine nuts and almonds and pistachios ground together with parsley and mint. Add some olive oil and cheese, and you have something special.
And then there is the matter of the optional orange zest. A light sprinkling of orange zest makes a delightful citrus counterpoint to the richness of the nuts. If you ask me, it shouldn't even be optional. But no one wants to hear about mandatory orange zest, I suppose.
The last sauce I made was the most complex, but it still takes no more time to make than it does to cook the pasta, if you count the time to bring the water to a boil.
Pappardelle with Broccoli Rabe and Mushrooms has a wonderfully fresh and unspoiled taste. A mixture of mushrooms is sauteed in oil that is flavored with garlic and fresh rosemary. Broccoli rabe, which is also known as rapini, is boiled separately, and then the wide noodles of pappardelle are cooked in the same broccoli rabe water.
Finally, everything is tossed together: the mushrooms, the broccoli rabe and the pasta, along with an inevitable sprinkling of good cheese. It is a dish that is hearty and satisfying.
Who needs tomatoes?
