finish your pasta in sauce, but which one?

Allan Bay has a different approach to pasta sauce. He is someone who catalogs things, so when he started to think through the complexity of pasta and sauces, he did it with the mindset of a cataloger. He started with the most basic question—what is a sauce? And from there he developed his ideas of sauce and his recipes. His ideas are a little unconventional, but he brings almost 200 sauces to the table, all with suggested uses for the best pastas to use with them.

Bay starts by answering his own question, of what is a sauce. It’s a preparation that serves to enhance a base. It elevates a dish. And he has divided his sauces into three categories. According to Bay, a ragu is a partially creamy sauce made with ingredients cut into pieces. A sauce is a blended condiment. And a pesto is ingredients that are pounded and blended. With that in mind, he moves on to the techniques he uses to make the sauces and to marry the sauce with the pasta.

And then there are the recipes. Bay starts with Healthy and Vibrant Vegetable Series, like an Asparagus and Pine Nut Sauce, Burgundy Sauce, Chestnut Sauce, Zucchini Blossom Sauce, Rosemary Potato Sauce, Pea and Ricotta Sauce, Eggplant Caponata, and Pumpkin Pancetta Sauce. Each of these recipes are scalable, so you can make extra freeze or you can make less if you’re eating alone. They also all come with what it goes best on and what goes well with it, whether it’s a pasta, rice, potato, bruschetta, beans, meat, seafood, or eggs.

There are Pesto recipes, like Cream Pesto, Broccoli Pesto, Sicilian Pesto, or Classic Pesto. There are Tomato Sauces, like the Tuscan Red Tomato Sauce, Puttanesca Sauce, Byzantium Sauce, Caprese Sauce, and Spicy Tomato Sauce. There are Cheese Sauces and Egg Sauces, like Spicy Six-Cheese Sauce, Brie and Pepper Sauce, Gorgonzola and Walnut Sauce, Tomato Omelet Sauce, and Hard-Boiled Egg Sauce.

All Kinds of Ragu has 40 different types of ragu, from a Ragu of Baked Onions, Salmon Ragu, Lobster Ragu, Turkey Ragu with Yellow Peppers, Braised Beef Ragu with Red Wine, Ragu of Osso Busco, and Red Lamb Ragu. Fresh from the Sea Fish and Seafood Sauces includes a Delicate Shrimp Sauce, Squid Sauce, Clam Sauce, Caviar Sauce, Seafood Carbonara, and Sardine and Tomato Sauce.

Last, there is a chapter of Hearty Meat Sauces, like Amatriciana Sauce, Pancetta and Spinach Sauce, Sausage and Tomato Sauce, Cream Sauce with Peas and Ham, Pork Rib Sauce, Spicy Beef Sauce, and Chicken Meatballs in Tomato Sauce.

The Complete Book of Pasta Sauces is packed with a wide variety of sauces for every taste. There are many beautiful photos of Italy and of the ingredients. But I was missing photos of the sauces, of the dishes that could be made with the sauces. And for anyone not too familiar with the flavors, there aren’t really any descriptions of how the sauces will taste. You just have to make them and find out. I do admire Allan Bay for his creativity in inventing and cataloging all these sauces. I just wish that there was a little more heart and a little more soul in this cookbook, to add some balance.

Egalleys for The Complete Book of Pasta Sauces were provided by Harvard Common Press (Quarto Group) through Edelweiss, with many thanks.