Pesto is a heady puree of fresh basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts, and Parmesan and Romano cheeses. It's typically tossed with hot trenette (wide, flat pasta similar to linguine) or cooked potatoes. The word pesto means "pounded" and refers to the traditional preparation using a mortar and pestle.

"Pesto originated in the port of Genoa as a quick meal for sailors," explains Sally Maraventano, author of Festa del Giardino: A Harvest of Recipes and Family Memories. "They could keep the pesto under a layer of olive oil in a cool spot. All they had to do for a meal on the ship was boil the pasta and toss it with the pesto."

But Maraventano attributes the popularity of the dish to its flavor and ease of preparation, not its shelf life. "It's a quick meal for busy people," she says. Plus, it's a great source of "the fresh garden taste of basil that you can enjoy all year long."

Salsa dei Mollusci (Clam Sauce)
Italy's many miles of seacoast inspire countless regional variations on pasta with clams. Most of the sauces are made by simply tossing tiny clams in their shells with hot olive oil and chopped garlic, then moistening them with wine or broth.

"Italian clams, particularly the common small, round ones from the Adriatic, are very savory, and little or nothing needs to be done to build up their flavor," writes Marcella Hazan in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Perhaps national pride overcomes her objectivity, though. Hazan continues, "Clams from other seas are blander, and you must look for help from external sources to approximate the natural spiciness of a clam sauce you'd be likely to experience in Italy."

In her recipe for clam sauce with tomatoes, intended for cooks in America, Hazan adds an anchovy fillet and a chopped hot red chile for flavor. We rely on tomatoes and basil to boost the flavor in our Clam Sauce.

Marinara Sauce
As basic as it is, no one seems to have the true story on marinara. If you look it up in a dozen Italian cookbooks, you're likely to find as many different explanations of what marinara is and how it's made. Two basic concepts predominate, however.

Some say that marinara is a very simple fresh tomato sauce with garlic and olive oil. Alla marinara means made in a quick and simple way, with just the few ingredients easily available to fishermen, writes Giuliano Bugialli in Bugialli on Pasta. He continues, "Some people mistakenly think the phrase means 'with seafood.'"

Other authorities, like Arthur Schwartz in Naples at Table, say the association of marinara with seafood is no mistake. The name, they contend, is derived from the Italian word mare, which means sea. According to Schwartz, "Marinara

in Campania is most often a tomato-based sauce with Gaeta olives, capers, anchovies, garlic, and sometimes preserved (canned or jarred) tuna."

In America, to add to the confusion, the word marinara is used to refer to any tomato sauce made without meat. Perhaps Italian cooking authority Marcella Hazan takes the wisest approach to the issue: In an extensive section about tomato sauces in her definitive cookbook, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, she never once mentions the term.

Salsa di Funghi (Mushroom Sauce)
In the spring and autumn throughout Italy, markets are flush with morels, honey mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, porcini, and many other specimens. Dedicated foragers make a cottage industry of picking and selling mushrooms, or funghi, to Italian cooks who are crazy for them. Many of these mushrooms find themselves paired with pasta.

"The ideal mushroom sauce for pasta in Emilia-Romagna is made in spring and autumn with fresh porcini or other fresh wild mushrooms," explains Mary Beth Clark, owner of the International Cooking School of Italian Food and Wine in Bologna, Italy. The porcini are frequently prepared al trifolato: sautéed in olive oil with garlic and fresh flat-leaf parsley before white wine and stock are added. Since fresh porcini are hard to come by in the United States, we've combined dried porcini with supermarket cremini (baby portobellos) to create our flavorful Mushroom Sauce.

Alfredo Sauce Fettuccine
all'Alfredo might have languished as an indulgence in a Roman restaurant if it weren't for the star-making power of Hollywood. John Mariani relates the story in The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink: Restaurateur Alfred Di Lelio tossed hot, fresh egg noodles with melted butter and the soft, sweet core of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese to create the simple, luxurious dish that Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. fell in love with on their 1927 honeymoon. Back in Hollywood, the movie stars spread the word about Di Lelio's creation. American chefs began making it, shortening the name to fettuccine Alfredo. Along the way, heavy cream was added to the sauce, and the dish evolved into an international favorite.