Sauces, Sauces, Condiments and Preserves

Sauce has always been one of the most popular protagonists of the Italian tradition. From north to south, regional Italian cuisine offers a very rich variety of sauces made with meat, fish, vegetables and eggs. One of the oldest sauces is the classic sautéed garlic, oil and chilli pepper still used today as a simple condiment for pasta. The most renowned is the Bolognese ragù of Emilian origin. Lazio cuisine is famous for its condiments based on bacon and bacon, while the regions of southern Italy often use vegetables and fish to create condiments with a strong and decisive flavor

Special sauces are also widespread, which differ from region to region in terms of texture and contained ingredients. If you want to bring eggs to the table, but you don't know what sauce to accompany them with, you can bet on the one based on mixed herbs, excellent if also served with green, red and yellow peppers cooked on the grill. Another well-known savory sauce is the traditional pesto made in the Ligurian way. Tuna sauce is also a classic of Italian cuisine that is highly appreciated all over the country

But how were sauces, sauces, condiments created? It is a curiosity that many people are wondering. Some anthropologists put forward l&' hypothesis that l&' the idea of 'sauce' could have been born to &' prehistoric man when he discovered that the liquids released from meat on a spit could be used to sprinkle other foods in order to improve their consumption. The term sauce derives from the Latin "salsus" (salty), in connection with the salty sauces used in &' antiquity.

Already in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC, then throughout the Mediterranean, l& #39 was widespread; the use of sauces to season almost all preparations. In &' Roman republican era, it was an especially simple type of preparation: garum (a fish brine) or nard (a &' valerian extract). Subsequently, Apicius himself indicates the massive presence of spices and aromatic herbs (mustard, coriander, cumin, dill, thyme, garlic, saffron or pepper) in

Condiments, therefore, have been loved by all the main peoples of history. The sauces modified the flavor of the foods, made them tastier even if it certainly could not be said that their smell was as inviting. Plautus says that the smell given off by certain sauces was similar to that derived from the mixture of sweat and ointments. The concept of sauce as an addition of flavor to dishes remained substantially unchanged throughout the Middle Ages, among the most famous being the Comellina sauce and the poivrade, prepared with broth and spices with l&' addition of agesto or vinegar, and thickened with grated toast.

It was during &' 600, for &' more measured use of spices, that flour began to be used as a binder for some sauces.

The French coding and development of three lines that would have led to modern sauces dates back to the 18th century: the reductions of vegetables, mushrooms and other elements without bizarre flavors; hot amalgams based on butter and flour, from which bechamel or Mornay were born; cold emulsions, of which mayonnaise is a typical example.

In Italy, except in Classic Cuisine of French origin, l&' the evolution of sauces has been very different. Medieval ones have been handed down, such as pearà, peverada or green sauce, well integrated into regional cuisines; tomatoes have provided purees, sauces and variously flavoured sauces for national

In Italian cuisine, independent research on sauces has never existed comparable to that carried out in the three great centuries of French cuisine. This is why the sauce system in Italy still reflects that d&' beyond the Alps. Today, due to &' the importance that soy sauce plays in the cuisine of many countries, deserves a mention