I was just reading the uncool foods thread and it reminded me that I recently heard that pink sauce is the Italian cuisine equivalent of Kung Pao chicken for chinese food (namely, inauthentic crud that is only ordered by philistines or drunkards).
Being both a philistine and drunkard myself, I didn’t know this. Is this really a commonly held belief?
While we’re at it, what’s your idea of the pinnacle of high-quality/authentic Italian (but let’s not get into the whole bit about tomatoes being New World)?
According to hubby, “Pink Sauce”, aka “Vodka Sauce” is a fairly recent invention, probably dating to the 1930’s when Vodka was starting to become known outside of Eastern Europe and Russia. He always wondered why one would add a tasteless liquor to tomato sauce, and did some research. Adding the vodka to the tomatoes while it’s cooking will release the melinoids (flavor thingies) out of the tomato that normally stay inert, and allows them to combine with the water soluble flavor thingies to create a greater depth of flavor. This is what I got out of a 15 minute lecture on the biochemistry of flavor, and Maillard reactions. BTW, he says simply adding vodka and heavy cream to an already made tomato sauce won’t do much to make a real pink sauce, except waste a bit of vodka and turn the tomatoes pink.
Tomatoes are just Southern Food in Italian cuisine, it’s like grits in the American South (which ironically are Northern food in Italy). Most of the Italian American immigrants are Southern Italians in heritage.
The Tomato thing is just a food bias. Italians have probably been eating tomatoes longer than anyone in the “Old World”.
The Sorrento ricotta cheese container has a recipe for “Pink Cream” spaghetti sauce: you take a large jar of your favorite red and add a cup of ricott’, some grated parmesan and mozzarella. No vodak.
Bleh. Besides, “Pink Cream” sounds like a sign of an STD.
Assuming that a “Pink Sauce” means the same thing in French (i.e. a vodka and cream induced tomato sauce), then it certainly isn’t considered low-class in France. I had truffles with pink sauce at Louis XV in France (~$1000 per person meal as of 1995.)
I think breaded and deep fried mangos (Sweet Green Bell Peppers) will always mean Italian to me (Fritto Misto). That and a very thin, double yeast, milk dough, pizza with a dry cured pepperoni (not moist pack) and a spicy marinara, with a corn meal dusting in an ancient gas pizza oven…
The ambience was Giant, Wall size, paintings of Gladiators in the coleseum, along with graphic chariot racing scenes. I wish I possessed the 10 X 4 scene of the trident bearing gladiator taking down the sworded gladiator with a net in the coliseum. They had a backlit blue, giant clam in poseidon’s lounge. Angelo sure had some style.
They also had tableside rolo-jukes. Listen to your favorite song off a tablesidejukebox.
I’ve always wondered who the artist was, or what style of painting these Giant gladiator scenes belonged to. Quite unique.
HUGE Wall sized paintings of beautifully classic, and illuminated Gladiator scenes. I’m thinking it was a 50’s painting. Almost painted for a particular clientele… very mafioso? If I were to collect paintings, I would collect these. Never seen them outside of Angelo’s Restaurant.
Surely, vodka was known in Italy long before the 1930’s. It might not have been entirely common, but there were also other clear liquors of similar proof and flavorlessness common to the Italians. My bet is that the recipe evolved from an original grappa/tomato/cream sauce recipe.
Vodka or pink sauce is generally a type of tomatoe marinara sauce with the addition of cream and vodka. It’s a pasta sauce that seems pretty trendy at the moment.
Actually, I wasn’t really even sure if the pink sauce being referred to necessarily had vodka in it. Marinara and cream seemed to be the vital components to making it pink.
But the jury seems out as to whether it’s lowbrow or not, with it possibly being trendy in fact (not that lowbrow and trendy are mutually exclusive of course). I know that I myself never considered the possibility that vodka sauce was something to be ashamed of ordering.
I do know that the addition of cream to a tomato based pasta sauce is a pretty common thing in Italy. In fact all of the classic recipes I’ve ever seen for bolognese sauce include a bit of cream. I believe the addition of cream to sauces is more of a Northern Italian touch, and doesn’t really seem all that lowbrow…seems traditional to me and well within the standards of regional Italian cuisine.
Same here. I mean, I’ve heard of and had vodka sauces or tomato & cream sauces (not a big fan, personally), but I’ve never heard of it referred to as “pink sauce.”