A Salad Adjacent Sauce
That the French apparently overlooked
YOU’VE HEARD OF THE MOTHER SAUCES of classical French cuisine. Hollandaise, Béchamel, Espagnole, Velouté, and the tomato roux getup. A handful of sauces with many uses.
I’m more interested in a “mother sauce” that lives up to the name, meaning one sauce that does many different jobs by itself, like an actual human mother does. Which made me think about all the ways you can use that vivid summertime standby, raw tomato sauce, aka salsa cruda, to eat on hot (and even cold) pasta
In July, especially where I live, it’s indispensable not just because it is the very essence of summer for tomato lovers, but because it is useful if you find yourself with too many delicious ripe tomatoes. I know. I know. I know. No such thing.
In fact, my gentleman farmer friend Kevin (actually he’s a writer with an amazing vegetable garden in Connecticut; he was featured in one of our most popular newsletters) said to me recently: ‘I have 19 tomato plants and I’m worried I’m not getting enough fresh tomatoes.”
Here is his garden, with its nasturtiums and kale, peppers and cucumbers, oak leaf lettuce, and tarragon, which I covet (it’s hard to find around here):
But trust me, you can waste a tomato or two down here in Atlanta. Not that I’m complaining. Being rich in tomatoes is a blessing (#blessed).
Anyway, when I noticed that the recipe for salsa cruda that I’ve been making since the late 80s, when mankind discovered fresh basil, was essentially the same as my recipe for tomato bruschetta topping (juicy, richly flavored tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, basil), I started ticking off the ways humans use this simple but powerful combo by itself—and often further adorned with extra treats. Dig my rhythm?
I’m trying to say that you really don’t have to make tomato bruschetta topping and salsa cruda. Just make one. You can toss it with hot pasta and leave it at that. Or you can also add mozzarella and/or thin strips of prosciutto and/or chopped black olives. Or you can toast slices of stale baguette brushed with olive oil (or not), then spoon the tonic concoction on top with a few strands of basil chiffonade. A curl of shaved parmesan is nice but not necessary.