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.