Seeing red

SOMERVILLE -- At Lil' Vinny's, the kitchen goes through 100 gallons of marinara each week. Owner Vinny Migliore's red sauce includes white wine and fresh rosemary, and this marinara shows up on classic spaghetti and meatballs. But it also morphs into puttanesca, enriches braising liquid for osso buco, and forms the base for minestrone. "You could say red sauce is the mother sauce," says Migliore.

It's the same in many other red sauce restaurants, places where most of the dishes are tinted with marinara and murals of Italy adorn the walls. Trendy Italian dining may shun marinara as old-fashioned these days. Still, the lure of red sauce draws us to those little, usually family-run spots that serve enormous portions of bruschetta, chicken parmigiano, spaghetti and meatballs, and frutti di mare. "As long as there's a restaurant serving deep dish lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, pizza covered with mozzarella and so forth," says cookbook author Mary Ann Esposito, "there will always be room for another one."

The kitchen skills of Italian-Americans, whether as home cooks or as professional s, are measured by the strength of their sauce. Home cooks might concentrate on Sunday's long-simmered meat sauce, or gravy. Most red sauce restaurants make big batches of one simple recipe, like the one made several times a week by Migliore, who owns Lil' Vinny's with his brother Anthony. Then restaurant cooks like Migliore use it as the base for multiple dishes on their menu.

The sauce springs from southern Italy. As Italian cooks arrived in the United States from regions like Sicily, Campania , and Abruzzi, they developed American versions of their regional dishes. Foods that were scarce in Italy were often plentiful and less expensive here, points out cookbook author Linda Bassett. Cooks added meat and cheese to what in Italy would be a simple tomato sauce, and they often combined the foods of different regions together. Unlike regional Italian cooking, where dishes might be specific to one town or even one neighborhood, these dishes were based less on geography than on a sense of abundance and generosity. "The big portions," says Irene Barone, who owns Carlo's Cucina Italiana in Allston with her husband, "that's the crazy Italian way."

Many cooks and diners say this robust style of cooking has corrupted the idea of authentic Italian food. But there are many more of us who like to go out and order from a menu we're comfortable with, bring the kids, greet the owners, share some wine, take home leftovers, and not break the bank. Here are some places to try.

At Rino's Place in East Boston, Anthony Dicenso took over from his parents 12 years ago. The couple opened Rino's in 1986, a year after arriving from Abruzzi, Italy. Dicenso, who has a culinary degree from Johnson & Wales and worked in a handful of North End restaurants, cooks the old-fashioned way. He makes five gallons of marinara daily by slowly sweating onions and garlic, then adding San Marzano tomatoes that he passes through a food mill. He doesn't simmer it long, and the sauce is light and flavorful, as is the eggplant parmigiana. Dicenso learned to make pasta from his grandmother and mother, and rolls and cuts his own ravioli, pappardelle, spaghetti, and fettucine to order at this small spot on a residential street outside of Day Square. Rino's Place, 258 Saratoga St., East Boston, 617-567-7412.

Carlo's Cucina Italiana is a fixture in Allston. Carlo and Irene Barone arrived to the United States in 1961 -- Irene at 16 from Abruzzi, Carlo at 18 from Naples by way of Argentina. They opened their restaurant as a sub shop in 1975, and converted it to a sit-down restaurant in 1994. Carlo, who says his wife taught him to cook, does prep in the morning and makes 12 gallons of marinara a day. The Barones add only garlic, salt, and pepper to their crushed San Marzano tomatoes, says Irene, and the sauce is then changed as needed. One dish, the rigatoni alla Rachele, is a dish named for one of their three daughters, featuring chicken and eggplant parmigiana, sausage, and meatball. "She likes to experience a little of everything," says Irene. Carlo's Cucina Italiana, 131 Brighton Ave., Allston, 617-254-9759.

Monte's is a nondescript spot under the railroad tracks in Lynn that's been turning out pizza and pasta for over 60 years. Chef Ken Bergstrom has worked there since 1978. Best known for their thin-crust pizzas, which sell by the hundreds on weekend nights, Monte's does solid red sauce standards using an "old, old, old recipe," says Bergstrom. "Our bread-and-butter is our marinara," he says. "I won't tell you what's in it, but it's always the same. That's the secret: consistency. It's been the same for 60 years." Monte's, 141 Eastern Ave., Lynn, 781-599-0478.

Lil' Vinny's owner Vinny Migliore learned the business from his uncle, Vinny Migliore, who operates Vinny's at Night. The younger Vinny worked there with his uncle for 12 years before opening Lil' Vinny's in 2000. He's at the stoves five nights a week and his co-owner and brother Anthony works the floor. His marinara is an original recipe that includes white wine and rosemary, and so far, he says, the recipe "seems to be working. Nobody complains about it." Lil' Vinny's, 525 Medford St., Somerville, 617-628-8466.

Vinny's at Night is a superette/restaurant on a block of Broadway in Somerville that smells like raw onions by 6 a.m. on weekdays. In the kitchen at Vinny's Superette, Vinny Migliore cooks marinara over four burners of a 10- burner stove. The pots of sauce are at different stages of production, but after he adds the tomatoes, "as soon as they bubble up," he says, "shut 'em off. Done." Thirty gallons daily are packaged for takeout, ladled into subs, and featured in 23 of the 59 items on the dinner menu, including beef braciole ($16.95), a three -meal portion of homemade pasta with flank steak rolled and braised in marinara. Vinny's at Night, 76 Broadway, Somerville, 617-628-1921.

The Daily Catch is another institution. Maria and Paul Freddura's North End restaurant celebrates its 35th anniversary next year. They've built their business on squid and other seafood, bringing your skillet of calamari and clams in red sauce straight to the table. Maria Freddura says she hasn't changed her red sauce recipe "more or less for 34 years." Her tomatoes have stayed consistent, too. The Fredduras never change vendors, says Maria. The Daily Catch simmers salmon, lobster bodies, or other fish in tomatoes three times weekly for six or eight hours. The result is a sweet, slightly salty sauce that's cut with stock or wine to order. The Daily Catch's location in the Moakley Courthouse opened in 2003. The Daily Catch, 323 Hanover St., Boston, 617-523-8567; 2 Northern Ave., Boston, 617-772-4400 .