Like anyone, my life can get hectic. And when it does, I want dinner in under 30 minutes. My favorite quick dinners are all pasta-centered. So it’s no surprise that this one is too.
I wish I had an Italian nonna, but I don’t. So when I need old fashioned, Italian-style cooking inspiration, I do the next best thing – I use cookbooks that my own mother gave to me – worn paperbacks from 20+years ago, and channel Marcella Hazan.
This past weekend I went to my local farmers market and bought a whole bunch of gorgeous, late season tomatoes. Mostly I bought seconds, at a discount, and we’ve been using them in salads, layered with fresh mozzarella and chopped up in Greek salad or similar cold dishes.
But last night, I was in the mood for pasta. And with fresh tomatoes, I knew that I could make “real” pasta sauce easily. Using Marcella Hazan’s “Thin Spaghetti with Fresh Basil and Tomato Sauce” as an inspiration I set to work.
This isn’t really a recipe as much as a description of what I did. The result was a fragrant and light sauce that gloriously coated the pasta, but didn’t look gloppy, as the store-bought sauce in jars so often does.
I used:
- 8 ounces (half of package) of spaghetti
- 1 pound of fresh Roma (small oblong) tomatoes
- handful of fresh basil leaves
- 4 cloves of garlic
- ¼ cup of olive oil
- ¾ teaspoon of kosher salt plus more for pasta water
- freshly ground pepper
While boiling the salted water for pasta, I halved the tomatoes and pulled out the seeds and the membrane that attached them to the tomato skin. Then I chopped the tomatoes and washed and chopped the basil leaves. Combining the chopped tomato, basil, oil, salt, and pepper in a heavy pot, I added mashed garlic and stirred. After I brought the mixture to a low boil, I cooked it, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes. The tomato pieces softened, but remained distinct.
Once the sauce was about halfway done, I started cooking the spaghetti. With the pasta water boiling, I slowly added the spaghetti to the water, keeping it boiling and letting it cook uncovered for approximately 8 -10 minutes. My sauce seemed to be done before the pasta was ready, so I shut off the light and left it on the stove.
After the cooking the pasta, I drained it thoroughly, using the hot water to warm the bowls. I reserved a bit of the tomato sauce (because I thought it made more than would be needed for the 8 ounces of pasta), then dumped the pasta into the sauce in the pot and stirred. Once the sauce coated the pasta, it was ready to serve.
Dinner in under 30 minutes! Served with sautéed vegetables, and enough leftover for lunch today. Happy Friday.
Leave a Reply