Rachel Roddy's Recipe for Tomato and Sausage Stew | A kitchen in Rome

While a pan burps and sometimes spits from the bottom of the stove, a story. The first description of tomato sauce arrived in Italy in 1628. It came from Mexico, of course, passing through Spain and the pen of naturalist and physician to Philip II, Francisco Hernández, whose detailed documentation of plants and Mexican food customs filled 16 volumes. . Translated first into Latin, then into Italian, one of the volumes includes a description of an intinctus (dipping sauce or sauce) "prepared from sliced ​​tomatoes and chilli, which enriches the flavor of almost any dish and whets the appetite".

It's not that anyone was still eating tomatoes in Italy. They had arrived decades earlier, in the form of a few plants and seeds, still from Mexico, where they grew wild and were revered. In his recent and detailed investigation of spaghetti in tomato sauce, Italian food historian Massimo Montanari notes that tomatoes were treated with curiosity and deep mistrust; they could be eaten, but doctors at the time warned they could cause "eye and head torment".

Montanari sees the sauce as a reason for the change. Since ancient times, the use of sauces – often referred to as “flavors” – was a systematic way of tempering foods to achieve balance between hot and cold. , wet and dry, and for color. Cold, moist, collapsible and red, the tomato was ripe to be kissed. The other part of the change was the almost complete governance of Italy (and the colonization of Mexico) by Madrid, and a new proliferation of recipes. Seventy years after the first mention of tomato sauce in Italy came the first recipe, by Antonio Latini, an Italian steward for a great Spaniard in Naples, in his book Lo Scalco alla Moderna ( The Modern Steward)< em>. Clearly from the Mexican tradition, but called alla Spagnola (Spanish style), the recipe is translated by Montanari: "Take very ripe tomatoes, roasted over a wood fire and peeled . Cut them finely with a knife, add a few diced onions, chilli if you wish, also diced, a pinch of thyme. Mix everything together and season with salt, oil and vinegar; a savory sauce for boiled meat, or other things." I made this, my gas burner trying to be a wood fire, and it was extremely enjoyable.< /p>

A few decades later, Vincenzo Corrado, a great exponent of Neapolitan culture and author of the 1773 book Il Cuoco Galante (The Gallant Cook), has nothing but good things to say. say about tomato, and gives a recipe for a sauce for mutton. No mention of meeting with pasta or macaroni, and certainly not spaghetti, a word not yet coined. This would come a few years later, in 1781, when Corrado refers to the tomato as a "universal" sauce that lends itself to meat, fish, eggs, pasta and green vegetables. Even more clearly in 1807, a recipe for maccheroni alla napoletana, orpasta mixed with cheese and a rich meat stew simmered in tomatoes, or concentrate (proof preservative), onion, pork, herbs, maybe a glass of wine, salt and pepper.

Which brings me to this week's recipe, inspired by all of the above, and also what I want to wake up from my January slumber lately – with pasta, gnocchi, rice or as part of lasagne with béchamel and grated parmesan. After a bit of prepping and frying, this stew is brought to a near boil, then reduced to a simmer for 50 minutes, or until the sauce is dense, rich, smells good - and doesn't "torment" anyone except, maybe the person who has to wipe the stove or wash the white T-shirt.

Tomato and sausage ragu

Prep 20 minCooking 1 hourFor 8

6 tablespoons olive oil 1 large onion, peeled and diced 1 carrot, peeled and diced 2 stalks celery, trimmed and diced 2 bay leaves 1 sprig of fresh rosemary2 cloves of garlic, peeled, left whole and impaled on a toothpickSalt and black pepper6 pork sausages, removed from their casings, crumbled meat1 small glass of red wine (125 ml) 3 cans of 400 g peeled plum tomatoes (1.2 kg), crushed 1 tablespoon tomato paste