Pasta tomato sauce, garlic and herbs. In Northern Italy "white sauce" is more common. However Italian cuisine is best identified by individual regions. Pasta dishes with lighter use of tomato are found in Trentino-Alto Adige and Emilia Romagna. In Bologna, the meat-based "Bolognese sauce" incorporates a small amount of tomato concentrate and a green sauce called "pesto" originates from Genoa. In Central Italy, there are sauces such as "tomato sauce", "amatriciana", "arrabbiata" and the egg-based "carbonara". Tomato sauces are also present in Southern Italian cuisine, where they originated. In Southern Italy more complex variations include pasta paired with fresh vegetables, olives,
Tomato sauce added to keep it from drying out too much. Onion and garlic are almost always sweated or sautéed at the beginning before the tomato is added, or puréed together with tomatoes and then cooked together. Other seasonings typically include dried mild chili peppers (such as guajillo chili or pasilla chili), epazote, basil, oregano, parsley, and black pepper. Ground or chopped meat is also common. Tomato sauce was an ancient condiment in Mesoamerican food. The first western person to write of what may have been a tomato sauce was Bernardino de Sahagún, a Franciscan friar, who made note of a prepared