Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce
Try this Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce recipe, or contribute your own.
- Carbohydrate 0.159 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 4.25715000180918 g
- Fiber 0.0960000014305115 g
- Protein 0.189 g
- Saturated Fat 0.584985000249811 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (10g)
- Sodium 18.7445182292029 mg
- Sugar 0.0629999985694885 g
- Trans Fat 0.121563750048993 g
- Calories 39 calories
Step-by-step
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over low-medium heat and add garlic.
- Saute just until garlic releases flavor but not until brown.
- Set aside to cool.
- Place diced tomatoes with their juice and pulp in a large bowl.
- Using potato masher, crush tomatoes until a liquid consistency that still has tomato chunks.
- Toss chopped basil onto the tomatoes.
- Scrape out the garlic and olive oil from the skillet onto the tomatoes.
- Add the remaining olive oil.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Stir until well combined.
- Serve over a thin pasta, either angel hair, tagliarini or linguini.
Most home cooks ruin fresh tomato sauces by either cooking the fruit down into a heavy paste or adding the garlic raw and sharp. Slicing the garlic thin and halving those pieces allows them to infuse the oil gently over low-medium heat without burning into bitterness. Remove the skillet from the heat the exact moment the garlic releases its aromatic compounds but before any color develops. Pale, fragrant garlic yields a clean background flavor that supports the raw tomatoes rather than overpowering them.
Crushing the tomatoes with a potato masher breaks down the cellular walls just enough to release the internal juices while preserving distinct pulp chunks. Combining these crushed tomatoes directly with the cooled garlic oil, remaining extra virgin olive oil, and chopped basil creates an emulsion that rests at room temperature. Let this mixture steep for thirty minutes so the salt draws out excess moisture and seasons the flesh thoroughly. Skipping this resting phase leaves the tomatoes tasting watery and unintegrated against the hot starch.
Thin strand pastas like angel hair, tagliarini, or linguini provide the correct surface-area-to-weight ratio for this chunky uncooked style. Drop the pasta into boiling salted water just before you plan to dress it so the noodles remain piping hot when combined with the cold sauce. The residual heat from freshly drained pasta warms the oil and tomatoes gently without cooking the fresh basil or altering the bright acidity of the ripe fruit. Toss continuously for sixty seconds to let the starches from the pasta bind the oil and tomato juices into a cohesive coating.
Using dried basil instead of fresh will fundamentally alter the aromatic profile, substituting minty or licorice notes for the bright pepperiness of fresh leaves. If fresh basil is entirely unavailable, flat-leaf parsley offers a clean, herbaceous alternative, though you will lose the distinct anise undertone. Parmigiano-Reggiano should be grated finely on a microplane rather than cut into coarse shreds so it melts instantly upon contact with the hot pasta. Keep remaining sauce refrigerated for no longer than twenty-four hours, as raw garlic stored in oil longer than that presents safety risks.
