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3 tablespoons butter

1 small chopped onion

6 chopped shallots or green onions

5 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon or 1 teaspoon dried tarragon

11/2 teaspoons thyme

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons tomato paste

Melt the butter and sauté the onion for a few minutes. Add the shallots, tomatoes, garlic and herbs and simmer for 1 hour. Season to taste and let cook down and blend thoroughly. Add the tomato paste at the last.

NOTE: Actually, sauce à I’Américaine is usually added to fish (generally shellfish) as it cooks in white wine. During the cooking process the sauce and the wine blend. The fish is then dished out on a platter and the liquid poured over and around it. The amount of sauce given above will blend with 11/2 cups of wine or fish stock.

SAUCE ITALIENNE

Brown roux

12 mushrooms

3 tablespoons butter

1 cup tomato paste or 1 can condensed tomato soup

3/4 cup fish stock

2 tablespoons chopped herbs (parsley, tarragon, chervil or dill)

Make a brown roux by browning 4 tablespoons of flour and combining with an equal amount of butter.

Chop the mushrooms very fine and cook them down in the butter until they are a paste.

Heat the tomato paste and the fish stock, which should be reduced a bit; when this has almost reached the boiling point, stir in the mushrooms and the roux and continue stirring until properly thickened. Add the chopped herbs and taste for seasoning.

CURRY SAUCE

2/3 cup grated coconut or ground almonds

1 cup milk

2 onions

1 apple, cored but unpeeled

2 tomatoes, peeled and seeded

4 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons curry powder

Salt

1 cup white wine

Cream, if needed

Put the coconut or almonds to soak in the milk.

Chop the onions, apple, and tomatoes. Melt the butter in a skillet and cook the onion until just soft. Add the apple, tomatoes, curry powder, and salt to taste. Cook slowly until the vegetables are tender. Add the wine and simmer for 15 minutes; then add the coconut or almond milk and simmer for 15 minutes more. Force the sauce through a fine sieve, return it to the stove, and let it cook down for a few minutes until well blended and thickened. Add a little cream if necessary. Taste for seasoning.

SAUCE DIABLE

6 shallots or 1 small onion with 1 clove garlic finely chopped

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1/2 cup consommé or fish broth

1/2 cup white wine

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon salt

Cayenne pepper

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 teaspoon Tabasco

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Sauté the shallots or onion and garlic in butter. Add mustard. Gradually add the consommé and wine, blending well. Add remaining seasonings and taste.

BARBECUE SAUCE

2 medium-sized onions, finely chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup tomato sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon basil

1/2 cup steak sauce

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 cup strained honey

1/2 cup red wine

Sauté the onions in olive oil until lightly browned. Add the tomato paste, salt, basil, steak sauce, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and honey. Allow to simmer 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the wine and allow the sauce to come just to the boiling point. Taste for seasoning. Strain through a fine sieve.

ANCHOVY ONION SAUCE

2 large or 4 medium-sized Spanish onions

4 tablespoons olive oil

10 anchovy fillets

1/4 cup chopped parsley

Thyme

Fresh or dried basil

1 cup Italian tomato paste

1/4 cup white wine

Peel the onions and chop them fine. Sauté them until delicately golden, but not brown, in olive oil. Add the anchovy fillets, each cut into 2 pieces. Mix very carefully with the onions and add the chopped parsley and a few leaves of thyme and basil. Stir in the tomato paste mixed with the wine and let the entire sauce cook down very slightly. Taste for seasoning. Whether you need additional salt depends on the saltiness of the anchovies.

SAUCE PROVENÇALE

3/4 cup finely chopped