Lean Sauce for Dressed Pasta

Origin: Florence, Italy

Source: Pellegrino Artusi, 1891

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. In half the butter, brown the pine nuts; lift them out dry and pound them in a mortar with the flour.
  2. Chop the onion very fine and cook it in the butter left in the pan until well colored; add the tomatoes in pieces with pepper and a little salt, cook, then pass through a sieve.
  3. Return the sugo to the fire with the thinly sliced mushrooms, the pine-nut paste (loosened with a little water), and the remaining butter; boil half an hour, adding water to thin it.
  4. Melt the anchovies separately with a little of the sauce, off the boil, and stir them in.
  5. Drain the spaghetti, dress with the sauce, and add Parmesan if desired. Serves five.

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