Cut the pecorino, the tomatoes (drained of their oil) and the hard-boiled egg into pieces, then coarsely chop them together with the olives, parsley, garlic and chilli pepper. Put the mixture into a bowl and add the oil, stirring it in carefully one tablespoon at a time (you can add one or two extra spoonfuls for a smoother sauce.) Season with salt and pepper to taste. To dress pasta with Salsa Etrusca, set aside a few spoonfuls of the water the pasta is cooked in to add to the bowl when mixing with the sauce. It is delicious with all pasta shapes, both long or short, but goes particularly well with Pici, the hand-rolled Tuscan spaghetti that some actually believe to be of Etruscan origin(1).

This sauce is also excellent for dressing cold pasta or rice salads, with the addition of tomatoes, raw vegetables and cubes of cheese. Diluted with a couple more spoonfuls of oil, and perhaps one or two spoonfuls of vinegar, it becomes a delicious dip for "pinzimonio" (raw vegetables), as well as being perfect on salads of raw or cooked vegetables. And let's not forget the appetising crostini you can make by spreading Salsa Etrusca on small slices of toasted bread, either on its own or with some "additions," according to your imagination and appetite.

(1)In theme with this appetising, uncooked sauce that also seems to date back to the "old" Tuscan ancestors.