Penne, red sauce

Eastside Road, June 27, 2011—

IT'S FUNNY: A MONTH in Italy, we were, and not once did we have tomato sauce. Well, if you don't count the little bit you'll find on a pizza.

Like Mozart, ”red sauce“ is one of the few things I begin to miss after a few weeks. Other old enthusiasms can be shelved for months at a time, especially if you've other things to keep you occupied. But tomato sauce — one wonders how the ancients did without it.

Tonight, after crudités — raw caulifower to dip into a complicated Indian salt-and-spices mix — we were back to basics: penne rigatoni dressed with Lindsey's tomato sauce: onion, olive oil, tomatoes, bay leaves, garlic, salt and peppers. A green salad afterward, of course: the lettuce from nearby farms is so soft and silky yet flavorful these days.

Rosé, Luberon, ”La Ferme Julien“