Steal sauce

Rubra sauce: ingredients and step-by-step recipe to prepare a red sauce, considered the ancestor of the very famous ketchup.

Rubra or red sauce is a creamy sauce made from tomatoes, peppers, carrots and other herbs . The origin of this sauce is a little debated, so much so that some link this sauce to the much more famous Piedmontese red sauce also known by the name of bagnèt ross and some to the much more famous tomato ketchup . In all cases, like the Piedmontese one, this sauce is also perfect to combine with meat second courses and in particular with roasts and boiled meats .

Rubra sauce is a little-known, almost niche product, although it can still be found on the market today produced by Cirio. It was precisely the great Piedmontese industry that produced it for the first time and since then the recipe has remained unchanged.

How to prepare the rubra sauce recipe

1. First wash the pepper , remove the stem, cut it in half and remove the seeds and internal filaments, then cut it into cubes.
2. Wash the tomatoes , blanch them for 1 minute in a pan of boiling water then drain and peel them. Cut the pulp into cubes and remove the seeds and internal filaments.
3. Clean and chop celery, carrot and onion. Pour the mixture into a saucepan together with the oil, flavor with a pinch of chilli and fry for about ten minutes.
4. Add the peppers , tomatoes , basil , vinegar , sugar and salt to taste. Cover with the lid and cook until the sauce is nice and thick. It will take about 40 minutes.
5. Using a food mill, reduce the sauce to a cream. We do not recommend using an immersion blender as it would lose its bright red color while blending.

Once cold, the rubra sauce is excellent to accompany Piedmontese mixed boiled meat , cheese (try it with grilled tomino, it's amazing) and boiled potatoes. However, it is different from bagnet ross or little red bath because it contains pepper. The difference between rubra sauce and ketchup, however, is much more marked. The American sauce par excellence is in fact solely based on tomato, onion, vinegar and sugar as well as some spices that vary from recipe to recipe.

In this short video , prepared by a friendly Milanese chef, you can observe all the steps and what we have underlined on the importance of not blending the sauce. We prefer it well red but in all cases the taste does not change.

Conservation

The rubra sauce will keep in the refrigerator for 4-5 days . It is also possible to transfer it into sterilized glass jars when it is still hot, close them with a new cap and pasteurize them in boiling water for 35-40 minutes . In this way it will keep for over 6 months in the pantry.

Rubra sauce: origin

It is impossible not to notice the similarities between rubra sauce and ketchup , the made in USA sauce par excellence. In fact, the origin is common and must be found in a fermented sauce typical of Asian cuisine. Brought around the world by Chinese sailors, it underwent various modifications, adapting from time to time to the tastes of the people it reached.

From the United States, where it was enriched with tomatoes, it arrives in Italy but once again the recipe is reworked. It was Cirio himself who created the first "local ketchup" by adding sofrito and peppers and giving life, in 1857 , to the rubra sauce.

However, the name dates back to 1923 when a fascist provision prohibited the use of foreign terms . To appease Mussolini, Cirio held a competition to find her a new name. The two finalists were Vesuvius and rubra, a Latin term indicating the color red. Well, we all know how that ended!

Ketchup, rubra sauce and red bath: three similar but different sauces that make our tables richer. The Piedmontese red sauce, however, differs from the previous two due to the presence of capers and anchovies. Consider that according to Pellegrino Artusi, who wrote Science in the kitchen and the art of eating well in 1891, it was a recipe that was already at least two centuries old.

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