Last night, I made Penne with Sicilian Shepherd’s Sauce from The Italian Country Table by Lynne Rosetto Kaspar. This is a really great cookbook for anyone who loves rustic Italian cuisine, and this is one of my favorite recipes from the book. It is essentially pasta with tomato sauce, but it is the method of preparation that sets this dish apart. It involves the use of a “soffrito.” Soffrito is an Italian term that refers to a mixture of savory vegetables that are pan-fried slowly in olive oil and then used as a flavor base for sauces or soups. To make the soffrito for this recipe, you mince together carrot, celery, onion, parsley and sage leaves and then fry those in olive oil until golden. The key is to cook slowly over medium heat until the vegetables are nice and golden. It took about 20 minutes for mine to achieve the right color. Toward the end of cooking, you add garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. When the soffrito is done, you add some dry red wine and stir, scraping up any brown bits that have stuck to the pan. Finally, you add canned chopped tomatoes and a bit of tomato paste and simmer for a few minutes longer.

What you end up with is a spicy, hearty tomato sauce, totally unlike your basic marinara sauce. But, wait, the best part is yet to come! Because this is a traditional shepherd’s dish, cheese must come into play somewhere. In this case, it is fresh, creamy ricotta cheese which is scooped in big dollops right on top of the pasta. Very rustic! I saw Lynne make this on TV once, and she was so excited about the dish that she got a little carried away and ended up piling on the ricotta like a madwoman. I was a little bit more conservative with my dollops of cheese. The pure white cheese against the deep red pasta is beautiful. Be sure to use the best ricotta you can find for this dish. I bought fresh ricotta at DeLaurenti, and it was so much creamier and tastier than the stuff in tubs that you find at the grocery store.

My wine choice for the evening was Roza Ridge 2003 Merlot, another one of the wines that my parents brought back from their wine tasting trip through Eastern Washington’s Rattlesnake Hills area last month. Roza Ridge is Hyatt Vineyard’s “reserve” label. Robert and I have been fans of Hyatt wines for a while now so it was exciting to try something from this second label of theirs. It was a very nice wine. Lots of black cherry flavor (which I almost actually detected on my own before reading it on the label!) Although the pasta probably would have been perfect paired with a Sicilian red, this Merlot was light enough in body and had enough acidity, that it worked just fine. With all the hype around Pinot Noir and other, hipper red wines, I forget how good a simple, well-made Merlot can be.

If you would like to make Penne with Sicilian Shepherd’s Sauce and don’t feel like winging it based on my loose directions above, you can find the full recipe here.