POLL: Which is the best basic Italian pasta sauce?

man, my boyf made his puttanesca again last night and fuck it's so good. basically like jim's receipe but he adds canned mackerel and that chili paste that matthew added. oh and baking sode to the tomatoes! which de-acidifies them and brings out the sweetness.

I made ramp pesto this weekend. Slightly strong, but so good.

I dunno what it is about the vodka sauce, I learned a recipe back when I was just getting into cooking and I've made it more times than I can count. [...]

― underminer of twenty years of excellent contribution to this borad (dan m), Wednesday, 7 April 2021 03:42 (one month ago)

enjoyed this dish v much, thanks for sharing

Welcome, comrade

change vote to aglio e olio pls

my late night quick pasta option is similar to this but not with the lemon, which seems to be a key ingredient.

the one I made last night had close to a full bulb of garlic, three chillies and a load of pecorino grated over the top. no lemon. was perfect. but ofc it depends on the pasta shape too. my actual vote would be more like this:

spaghetti - aglio e olio
linguine - vongole
most other things - pesto (but alternatives considered)

the one time I looked at a recipe for aglio e olio it had lemon juice as an emulsifier for the boiled pasta and oil but looking around it's not a common ingredient for this one. I always use some butter as well as the oil with my sauces or simple pasta dishes.

Personal top 3:
Pesto alla trapanese
Amatriciana
Cacio e pepe (hardest one to get exactly right imo)

Vodka sauce - that seems to be a specifically american thing? As someone living in a very heavily Italian populated community I cant say its a sauce I see here at all.

Yes, though there are claims it was invented in Italy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOWG4pU2-6Y

Italian chef making penne alla vodka. If I understood him, he's saying the use of vodka came via Croatian influence.

Oops brain fart. Slovenian not Croatian.

Can't stand marsala, I'm glad it received zero votes

never had it and it sure doesn't look good

there are a lot of good uses for marsala that aren't pasta sauce tbf