@ehBeth,
That's also an italian take, at least from Tuscany. I remember my first wonderful pasta at a small inn, not the ingredients exactly, but that the saucing was quite spare relative to what a lot of americans are used to. It was a tomato sauce, but the sauce didn't flow, it clung, not in great clumps either or even a red coating.
edit to go on a bit - regions and even towns and families in towns vary. I've never been to the south, sadly, but Siena and Naples are way different.