Caruso sauce

Caruso sauce or salsa Caruso is a warm sauce in Uruguayan cuisine made of cream, ham, cheese, beef extract, and mushrooms, and sometimes nuts or onions. A simpler version is a Béchamel sauce with spices, walnuts, and ham.^[1] It is served with pasta, typically cappelletti.

Tortellini with Caruso sauce

A different Caruso sauce, unrelated to the Uruguayan one and also served with pasta, is made of tomato, chicken giblets and mushrooms.^[1][2]

History

Caruso sauce was created in the 1950s in Uruguay by Raymundo Monti of the restaurant Mario y Alberto in Montevideo. Monti wanted to create a new recipe in the style of Italian cuisine.^[3] The dish was named in honor of the Neapolitan tenor Enrico Caruso who was popular in South America during his tours of the 1910s.^[3][4]

The sauce was originally considered to be a variant of bechamel but its flavor is distinctly different. Several culinary seminars referred to Caruso sauce as "the new invention", and it gained international culinary recognition.^[3] In recent decades, the sauce has been included in the menu of some South American and Western European restaurants,^[5] but it is unknown in Italy.^[6]

See also

• List of sauces
• Chimichurri