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FijiFlavors · Montevidéu
Pasta stuffed with meat with Caruso sauce, made with heavy cream, ham, mushrooms, cheese and meat extract. The sauce was created in Montevideo in the 1950s and is named for the tenor Enrico Caruso.
Traditional dish from Montevidéu, Montevidéu
Also known as: capelettis a la Caruso, capellettis a la Caruso, salsa Caruso
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Capeletis a la Caruso — Montevidéu, Uruguay
Capeletis a la Caruso are capeletis, small meat-stuffed pastas, served with Caruso sauce. The sauce is a variation of white sauce: it contains milk, heavy cream, cooked ham, mushrooms, grated cheese and a spoonful of meat extract, which gives it a more intense flavor.
The recipe originated in Montevideo in the 1950s. The cook Raymundo Monti, of the restaurant Mario y Alberto, at the corner of Constituyente and Tacuarembó streets, combined ham and mushrooms with white sauce and added cream and meat extract. Uruguayan press sources point to 1954 as the year.
The name honors Enrico Caruso, the Neapolitan tenor who sang in Montevideo in 1915, after performing in Buenos Aires, and who enjoyed pasta. Caruso died in 1921 and never got to taste the dish that bears his name.
For food columnist Ángel Ruocco of the newspaper El Observador, it is “the only exclusively Uruguayan dish.” The sauce spread across the country and onto Buenos Aires menus, and it also accompanies other stuffed pastas.
Montevidéu , Montevidéu
Caruso sauce was created in Montevideo, at the restaurant Mario y Alberto, in the 1950s.
Capeletis stuffed with meat; sauce of milk, heavy cream, cooked ham, mushrooms, grated cheese, meat extract and cornstarch to thicken.
Hot, with the sauce on top and grated cheese at the table.
All year round.
Your questions
The cook Raymundo Monti, of the restaurant Mario y Alberto, in Montevideo, in the 1950s.
In honor of the Neapolitan tenor Enrico Caruso, who sang in Montevideo in 1915. He never tasted the dish, which was created decades later.
Milk, heavy cream, cooked ham, mushrooms, grated cheese and meat extract, thickened like a white sauce.
Flavors of Uruguay
A mix of dry white wine and sweet sparkling wine in equal parts, served very chilled. It’s associated with the Mercado del Puerto in Montevideo, where it’s drunk at the counter before lunch and at year-end celebrations.
Sponge cake tart, whipped cream, crunchy meringue and peaches in syrup, light and airy. It was created in Paysandú in 1927 and is named after a local bird.
Hot sandwich of thin beef steak, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, egg and mayonnaise, also served on a plate with French fries. It was born in a bar in Punta del Este in the 1940s and, despite the name, does not contain goat.
Fried patties of a light batter with chopped fresh green seaweed, typical of the resort towns along Rocha’s coast, such as Cabo Polonio, Valizas and La Pedrera. Served hot, as a starter or snack.
Liqueur made from the orange, sweet-and-sour fruit of the butiá palm, which forms large palm groves in the department of Rocha. The town of Castillos, amid the groves, is known as the “butiá city.”
Red wine from the Tannat grape, with intense color and pronounced tannins, the signature grape of Uruguay. The grape arrived in the country with Pascual Harriague, who adapted it in Salto in the 19th century.
