Four takes on red sauce

The Splendid Table recipe specifies spaghetti, but the day I decided to make this I didn't have any on hand so I cheated and used the penne I did have.

A bowl of red sauced pasta is such a wonderful known quantity, even when they're all different. Here are four options for comfort in a bowl that demonstrate the variation that can be had around a common theme. The guest star ingredients range from salami to pancetta, and ground beef to mushrooms so there's a vegetarian option. So pull out a big can of San Marzano tomatoes, an even bigger pot and have garlic at the ready. The sauces are good to make ahead and reheat. One guess what's for Valentine's Day dinner.

Classic spaghetti with tomato-red wine sauce

A Lynne Rossetto Kasper "Splendid Table" recipe as published in the Minnesota Star Tribune Taste Section, first in 2007 and then again in 2025 when Rossetto Kasper was auctioning off some of her culinary collection. You can see the original recipe here. It's very precise and specifies things such as  5 quarts of salted water in a 6-quart pot. Very, very precise.

Ingredients

2 medium onions, diced
2 celery stalks with leaves, thinly chopped
2 ounces Italian salami, cut into ¼-inch dice
¼ to ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 large garlic cloves, minced

2 "generous" tablespoons tomato paste

⅓ cup dry red wine
½ torn fresh basil leaves

1 (again, generous) tablespoon dried basil
1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes with juice, plus 1 14-ounce can, drained
1 pound spaghetti

Grated cheese for garnish, such as Parmesan, Asiago or Pecorino

Method
Put a large pot of salted water on, ready to bring up to a boil when needed.

Film the bottom of a large, deep skillet with olive oil. Add chopped onion and celery, season with salt and pepper and cook until onion is golden. Add salami and pepper flakes and cook for 2 minutes, Add garlic, tomato paste, red wine and the basil. Cook over medium high heat, stirring often, while red wine is nearly cooked off. (Now would be a good time to crank up the heat under the pasta pot.)

Add the tomatoes to the salami onion mixture, crushing them as you add them. Simmer until mixture thickens, about 8 minutes. 

Add pasta to boiling water and cook until al dente Drain and add to sauce. Serve with grated cheese for garnish.

Rating: Yep, that's a classic for a reason.

Pasta alla Carla

It might seem incongruous to choose an Italian recipe from a cookbook called "The Little French Bakery Cookbook," but it's a recipe author Susan M. Holding learned on a trip to Tuscany from a woman named Carla. Holding trained on pastry at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and runs a cooking school in Wisconsin. 

Note: The basic gist of this recipe is that the vegetables get chopped so finely that they more or less disappear into the sauce when cooked, so when you think you've chopped them enough, keep chopping, and then some more. I contemplated using the food processor but worried I might turn them to liquid. The original recipe lists 1 to 2 pounds of pasta, and suggests starting with 1 pound. Since 1 pound was all I had of any one type, I went with that. My sense is that if you like your pasta drenched with sauce, that 1 pound would work, but if you prefer it to be more nearly dressed than drowned with sauce, that 2 pounds would be closer to the mark if you want to use up all the sauce. I just opted to save the extra sauce to use later on more pasta. I'd say this could serve 6 as a main dish using 1 pound of pasta.

Ingredients
1 (28-ounce) can San Marzano or plum tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 ounces pancetta, diced
1 red onion, finely minced
2 celery stalks, finely minced
1 carrot, finely minced
3 large garlic cloves, finely minced
1 cup parsley, finely minced
1½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground pepper
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 cup water

1 pound (or more) long pasta, like fettuccine or spaghetti (I opted for linguine)
Grated Parmesan for garnish

Method
Drain tomatoes, reserving liquid. Run tomatoes through a food mill, or if you're like me and don't have one, puree them in a food processor and drain through a fine mesh sieve. (I reserved the tomato sludge for another use; great to enrich a vegetable soup.)

In a large deep pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add pancetta and cook until crisp and golden. Add onion, celery and carrot and cook until softened, but not browned. Add garlic and cook for a minute. Stir in parsley, salt, sugar, ground pepper, pepper flakes and tomatoes. Add 1 cup water to the reserved tomato liquid and add that to the pot. Bring mixture to a simmer, and cook partially covered for 30 to 45 minutes until sauce is noticeably reduced and thickened, then cover and keep warm while pasta cooks.

While sauce cooks, heat up a large pot of salted water for the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain, return to pan to dry the pasta and toss with some of the sauce to coat. Transfer to serving dish, top with more pasta and serve with Parmesan for garnish.

Rating: No idea if I diced it fine enough since there was no Carla standing over me to judge. There's an unobtrusive background hint of heat from the pepper flakes and the pancetta flavor comes through. Dave approved. I don't know that I'm blown away by it, but it is a nice, basic example of a simple classic pasta sauce, which has a sort of clean quality to it. If you've got the time, it most certainly beats anything out of a bottle.

Black bean Bolognese

This is the cover recipe from the Winter 2026 issue of Bon Appetit. The black beans in question come in the form of black bean garlic paste, which I tracked down at Kowalski's without having to venture into any more exotic source. Serves 4.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 1½-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
¾ dry white wine
1 pound ground beef
⅓ cup black bean garlic sauce
2 teaspoons brown sugar
12 ounces pappardelle, bucatini or rigatoni
3 tablespoons butter, cut into chunks
Green onions, chopped for garnish

Method

Heat olive oil in a large deep pan over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger and cook until softened and fragrant. Add tomatoes, crushing them a bit as you go. Bring to a simmer and cook for 20-25 minutes until sauce is very thick. Add wine and cook until almost evaporated. If there are still larger chunks of tomatoes, try to mash those smooth. Add ground beef, black bean garlic sauce and brown sugar. Cook until beef is cooked through and simmer for 10-15 minutes to allow the flavor to develop. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove 2 cups of the sauce and set aside.

Cook pasta until just before al dente. Drain, reserving liquid. Toss pasta with sauce in pan and butter. Add sauce and cooking liquid as needed until the pasta is coated. Serve garnished with green onions.

Rating: Dave was emphatic about expressing how much he liked this dish, so it's not unlikely we'll make it again. It's not your traditional Bolognese, but it's a tasty entry into the genre. 

Leftover note: My package of pasta wasn't 12 ounces, so we wound up not needing much of the reserved sauce.  Good to use on another pasta or to turn it into a soup. I'm itching to try this recipe from Amy Sheppard that uses about 3 cups of Bolognese sauce, about a quart and a half of stock and Boursin round for creaminess, topped with a sprinkling of what looks on IG to be parsley.

Rigatoni with quick mushroom Bolognese

From Taste’s Sunday Supper in the Minnesota Star Tribune, taken from “Mostly Meatless,” by America’s Test Kitchen. The only adaptation I made was upping the amount of tomato paste by a tablespoon, partly because it looked like it could use it, and partly so it would get used, since I happened to have 5 tablespoons in a jar in the frig that would be good to use up. Oh, and another clove of garlic so I possibly could actually detect it.

Ingredients
1 pound rigatoni, cooked until al dente, 1 cup cooking liquid reserved
1 pound cremini mushrooms, trimmed and quartered
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
¾ teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons tomato paste
4 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup white wine
¼ cup grated Pecorino Romano, plus more for garnish
Chopped chives for garnish
Crushed red pepper flakes for garnish

Method

Pulse mushrooms in food processor until finely chopped, about 10 pulses. Heat oil in a large deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, onion, carrot and salt and cook until mushrooms have exuded their liquid and that liquid has cooked off.

Stir in tomato paste and garlic. Cook about 3 minutes until mixture has tightened. Stir in wine and cook until evaporated. Add cooked pasta, ¼ cup cheese and reserved 1 cup cooking liquid and stir well. Serve garnished with more grated cheese, chives and red pepper flakes.

Rating: If you're looking for a meatless version of a traditional Bolognese this sort of gets at that texture. It comes together fairly quickly once you get everything chopped. It's not a wower, but it's fine enough.

Also, too

All good choices. And instead of making me sick of red sauce, it makes me want to dust off  this Marcella Hazan recipe. So elemental, and so good.

Oven sauteed red onions, kalamatas, tomatoes and anchovies

 

The news that Lynne Rossetto Kasper was selling off some of her accumulation of cooking-related items made me remember how much I enjoyed her show/column. So I dusted off this one for old-time sake.

Provencal onion oven saute

From "The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories and Opinions" by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Zest of 1 orange
¼ teaspoon fennel seeds
5 to 6 anchovy fillets
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3 large red onions, sliced ¼-inch thick
1 fresh tomato, chopped (or 2 canned)
½ cup chopped kalamata olives
Juice of 1 lemon

Method
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with tin foil; a half sheet works well so you can get things closer to a single layer.

Combine olive oil, vinegar, orange zest, fennel seed, anchovies and garlic in a large bowl. Toss with onions, tomatoes and kalamatas. Spread on prepared baking sheet and bake until onions pick up color but still have a bit of crunch. The recipe suggested 15-20 minutes; in my oven I found it took closer to 25 minutes. Sprinkle with lemon juice.

Serve over cooked pasta, grains or as a topping on bread. It you opt for pasta, you'll probably want to toss in some of the pasta cooking liquid to make it a tad more saucy.

Rating: Pleasantly piquant. Just a nice combo of different flavors with no one being overly assertive, adding up to a greater hole. We opted to serve it over penne, but I could certainly see serving over quinoa or couscous, or on bread, especially if one did a layer of ricotta on the bread first. I had sliced the onions in advance so it came together pretty quickly as a supper. Perfectly simple, yet splendid.

And if you serve it in the bowl you tossed the onions and dressing in, it's reasonably sparing of dishes, which I'm appreciating right now because a dishwasher seal is on order.

Butternut squash pasta with bacon, sage and brown butter

 

Three weeks ago the red-winged blackbirds were back by the lake's marshy areas singing their signature ascending three-note call. Last week we saw our first butterfly of the season, and today a dragonfly. The daylilies are pushing up and the trees are bravely budding out. Clearly it's spring-ish.

So I cooked a fall recipe. Because that actually really did make sense, since there was one butternut squash remaining on the orchard rack in the basement from last fall, and the sage plant will no doubt take at least a temporary a dive when we take it back outside. Still a few freezing overnight lows in the extended forecast, but time to be wrapping up last fall's bounty ahead of upcoming spring markets in three weeks. 

Basically, it's a perfect recipe for the time of year where I want even the mildest of winters to be over, but haven't sloughed off enough winter lethargy to truly developed spring ambitions. I want at least a week of just being able to walk around without coats before entering the prolonged months of all the physical labor that pretending to garden entails. If I had a hammock, I would crawl into it to rest up. Except I'm pretty sure that I couldn't get out of it again without help. But this recipe could make it worthwhile.

Butternut squash pasta with bacon and sage brown butter

From “Homemade Kitchen” by Alana Chernila

Ingredients

1 small butternut squash (1 to 1½ pounds), peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 medium onion, cut into ½-inch wedges
1½ tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon kosher salt
4 ounces bacon, sliced
1 pound farfalle pasta
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
10 fresh sage leaves
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Method

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large pasta serving bowl, toss together squash, onion, olive oil and salt. Spread mixture on prepared baking sheet and bake for squash is tender and onions have picked up color, about 30 to 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, place bacon on another baking sheet at bake at 450 for 18-25 minutes until crisp. Cut into pieces when cool enough to handle.

While squash and bacon cook, heat a large pot of water to boiling. Salt liberally and cook pasta until al dente. Drain, reserving at least a cup of cooking liquid. Place pasta in the large serving bowl in which you mixed the squash. Add cooked squash and bacon.

Heat butter in a small sauce pan until butter foams and takes on a light brown tint. Add sage leaves and cook briefly. Add mixture to pasta bowl, along with Parmesan, and enough reserved pasta cooking water to reach desired sauce consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Rating: You really can't go wrong with roasted squash and bacon over pasta, and this recipe definitely does not go astray. Totally cheating with those ingredients, and while it uses a certain number of pans, it still meets my kitchen ROI bar. It serves 6; Dave really enjoyed the leftovers for lunch, because bacon.

Pretty sure this one can enter the rotation along with pasta with balsamic-roasted squash, bacon and blue cheese and roasted butternut squash Alfredo pasta.

Zucchini pasta with feta, zucchini pasta with brie, zucchini-ricotta-sun-dried tomato pasta

 

If you've found yourself winding to the end of harvest season with zucchini piling up, here are a few more ways to use that blank canvas that is zucchini.

Wagon wheels with zucchini and brie

From “Super Tuscan” by Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar. The recipe called for wagon wheels (which I have not seen in stores for years) or another round pasta.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ pounds zucchini, sliced into 1/8-inch rounds
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
12 ounces Brie, cut into 1inch cubes, rind trimmed
1 pound pasta (the recipe called for wagon wheels or a tube-shaped pasta like penne
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Grated Parmesan for serving

Method
Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Add zucchini in as flat a layer as possible. Top with red onions. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until zucchini is beginning to brown, about 20 minutes or so. Remove from heat. Top with Brie chunks, cover and let sit while pasta cooks to al dente. Drain, reserving cooking liquid, and toss with zucchini mixture. Add reserved cooking liquid as needed for sauce consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with grated Parmesan.

Rating: Nice enough, but fairly subtle flavor. 

 

 Zucchini dill pasta

Adapted from “Al Fresco: Inspired Ideas for Outdoor Living,” by Julie Pointer Adams. A lot of the food in this book doesn't necessarily scream outdoors or picnic in the stereotypical sense; just recipes that are photographed in idyllic settings that you could at least transport to a table in your back yard. Just make sure that back yard is in So Cal or Tuscany for the photo backdrop.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to taste
½ medium yellow onion, diced
Red pepper flakes
4 garlic cloves, chopped
5 medium zucchini, coarsely grated
12-ounce package fettucine
½ cup white wine
Zest and juice of 2 lemons, divided
A handful of chopped fresh dill, plus more for garnish
Small handful lemon balm, chopped
½ cup crumbled feta
2 tablespoons chopped pistachios

Method
Bring water to a boil for pasta.

While water is heating up, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat in a large deep pot. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add a pinch of salt and of red pepper flakes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add zucchini and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Add pasta to pot and cook until al dente. Drain, reserving some pasta cooking liquid.

Add wine to zucchini and cook over medium high heat until it mostly cooks off. Add lemon zest and juice of 1 lemon. Add herbs, pasta and cooking liquid as needed for desired sauce consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Serve garnished with more dill, feta, a drizzle of olive oil, pistachios and the remaining lemon juice.

Rating: Between the first two recipes, I liked this one a bit more, probably because it seemed creamier, and had the bright flavor of dill and tang of feta. Certainly a workable combination. I confess we ate it indoors because it was raining.

 

Pasta with roasted zucchini, ricotta and sun-dried tomatoes

Having tried two variations of zucchini pasta with cheese, I pondered what a version with ricotta would be like.

Ingredients
1 pound short pasta, cooked to al dente and drained, some cooking liquid reserved
3 medium zucchini, ends trimmed, sliced into ¼-inch rounds
2 tablespoons oil from oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, divided
Lemon pepper seasoning, salt
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon
½ pound ricotta
½ cup chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes

Method
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Place zucchini rounds in a single layer in the pan. Brush with 1 tablespoon of the oil. Sprinkle liberally with lemon pepper seasoning and a bit of salt. Bake for 20 minutes until tender and starting to pick up color. Remove from oven and set aside.

In a large deep pot, heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Add garlic, red pepper flakes and lemon zest and cook over medium heat until garlic is just fragrant. Add lemon juice and ricotta and heat through. Add zucchini, pasta, sun-dried tomatoes and enough pasta cooking liquid to make desired sauce consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Rating: Not a bad first take on a recipe. I liked the ricotta a lot, and thought the roasted zucchini brought a bit more to the party than the previous recipes. Sun-dried tomatoes up the flavor. If I try it again, I'll try adding all the oil to the garlic pan and using some of that to brush the zucchini, or maybe grilling it for extra flavor.

Mushroom asparagus pasta with ricotta

 

Pappardelle with asparagus and mushrooms
Adapted from “Super Tuscan” by Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar. Note: The original recipe called for fresh nipitella, which isn’t something I run across here, or subbing in fresh mint, which I avoid like the plague. Since lemon balm is a recurring volunteer on my patio, it seemed a logical substitute, with a touch of tarragon for tang.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 large garlic clove, crushed
10 ounces mushrooms, sliced (cremini worked well)
1½ pounds thin asparagus, woody ends snapped off
2 teaspoons lemon balm, chopped
1 teaspoon tarragon leaves, chopped
1 pound pappardelle or fettucine, cooked just to al dente, reserving some pasta water
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup fresh ricotta
Optional additions to ricotta topping: 1 clove minced garlic, zest of 1 lemon and 2 teaspoons chopped lemon balm or tarragon

Method
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Toss asparagus with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Roast for 10 minutes, turning once, until just crisp tender. Remove from oven and chop into 1 to 2-inch lengths.

While asparagus is roasting and pasta is cooking, heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large deep skillet. Add garlic and cook until just fragrant. Add mushrooms and cook until beginning to brown.

Add cooked chopped asparagus to the pan along with lemon balm and herbs. Season with sea salt and freshly grated pepper. When pasta is cooked and drained, add to pot along with Parmesan and as much cooking liquid as needed for sauce consistency.

Serve with a generous dollop of ricotta, mixing in garlic, lemon zest and herbs if desired.

Rating: Perfectly serviceable as first attempted, but when we had second helpings I swapped in a dollop of Green Goddess ricotta dip we had on hand, which really upped the game.If I make this one again, I'm definitely going to add herbs and garlic to the ricotta for that additional flavor burst.

Asparagus carbonara

 

If the internet is to be believed, the Swedish have traditionally been more into white asparagus than green, but I'll take what we can get during the brief season, and the green is pretty in this recipe.

Asparagus carbonara
Adapted from "Swedish Summer Feasts," by Amanda Schulman and Hannah Widell, a book filled with recipes for summer beach house living in another all-too-brief season, known as summer. The pictures will make you want a Swedish beach house.

Ingredients
14 ounces pasta
10 ounces bacon, chopped fine
1 yellow onion, chopped fine
9 ounces asparagus spears, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 eggs
2/3 cup heavy cream
3 ounces Parmesan, grated, plus more for garnish
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Method
Cook pasta in boiling, salted water until al dente. Drain, reserving cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, cook bacon and onion in a large deep pot until bacon is crisp. Add asparagus and cook until just tender. Add pasta to pot.

Mix eggs, cream, Parmesan, garlic and salt and pepper in a bowl. Stir into pasta mixture, adding some of reserved cooking liquid to make desired sauciness. Serve garnished with Parmesan.

Rating: Fine. It's pasta carbonara with asparagus, so if you like them both separately, you'll like them together.

Pasta with chickpeas, kale, tomatoes and capers

 

This recipe is pantry/garden friendly, at least if your garden is overrun by volunteer kale you can't bring yourself to eradicate, because what if you wind up needing that to survive? Hard to beat free food.

Pasta with chickpeas and kale
Adapted from Food Network magazine Nov./Dec. 2008

Ingredients
1 pound pasta
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
5 garlic cloves, sliced
¼ cup capers, drained
½ cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 bunch kale, thinly sliced
½ cup grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish

Method
Cook pasta in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain, reserving some cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet. Add garlic, capers, parsley and chickpeas. Cook over medium high heat until slightly browned.

Add tomatoes, kale and salt to taste. Cook for 10 minutes until sauce thickens. Stir in pasta and Parmesan, adding reserved cooking liquid as necessary. Serve drizzled with additional olive oil and sprinkled with additional grated Parmesan.

Rating: Fast, reasonably tasty thanks to the capers. One less bunch of kale to go through. But you could certainly use spinach or escarole instead. Dave's take: It's palatable kale that doesn't even have bacon.