Pasta Al Pomodoro
If you’ve been a reader of mine for a while you’ll know that most of my pasta recipes contain a whole cup of cream and about 37 blocks of cheese. Today we’re going for something a little different. Still a recipe you’ll absolutely fall in love with never the less 😁
What is Pasta Pomodoro?
Pasta Pomodoro is a celebration of the tomato (‘pomodoro’ means ‘tomato’ in Italian). It’s a classic Italian dish which is often quite light, contains few ingredients and is served with spaghetti.
What is pomodoro sauce made of?
At it’s very most basic, a Pomodoro sauce usually contains good quality tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and in most cases fresh basil. It’s also not uncommon for Pomodoro sauces to contain onion, parmesan and tomato puree, all of which we’re using as well today. And that’s all you’ll need!
Roasted Tomatoes
Okay, so here’s where we’re going to go off track a little bit. Most recipes use canned tomatoes for the base of the sauce. Usually San Marzano Whole Tomatoes, which I’ve personally tested with an works great! BUT, here I see a window of opportunity to inject some extra flavour. By roasting tomatoes you completely transform them. The flavour intensifies and turns slightly sweet. Chuck a few cloves of garlic in there too to add some gorgeous caramelized roasted garlic and bobs your uncle. Roasting the tomatoes is a really easy but nifty trick to bringing out the best in them. I recommend using good quality ripe tomatoes (here I use vine-ripened tomatoes). Process shots: slice tomatoes open, season with s&p and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil (photo 1), flip over and add garlic (photo 2), roast until wilted and lightly charred (photo 3).
Pomodoro Pasta Sauce
The roasted tomatoes, oil, garlic and the juices they come with make a good bulk of the sauce. We’re also going to add in some onion, which will just be fried off in a good helping of extra virgin olive oil.
Tomato Puree
This is another game changing ingredient. Tomato puree (i.e tomato paste in the US) will deepen the flavour of the tomatoes. To really bring out the best in the tomato puree though you’ll want to fry it. Sounds odd, but by frying tomato puree you caramelize it and take out that sour bite it has. The difference this makes is huge!
Blender
From there everything goes into a blender and pulses into sauce. I tend to pulse everything, then add in fresh basil and pulse a little more, just so you can see more of the basil. You can however add basil at the start and blitz it into the sauce if you wish.
Can I sub dried basil?
Because you’re not really cooking the sauce for very long you don’t have enough time for dried basil to infuse into the sauce. As such, fresh basil is essential here. Process shots: add onion to oil (photo 1), fry until soft (photo 2), add tomato puree (photo 3), fry (photo 4), add to blender (photo 5), add roasted tomatoes & garlic (photo 6), blitz (photo 7), add basil and pulse a few times (photo 8).
Pasta Pomodoro
From there it’s just a case of popping the sauce back in the pan and tossing through pasta.
What pasta to use?
Spaghetti is most authentic, but any long cut pasta will work great. Here I use Linguine!
Starchy Pasta Water
The final key to this pomodoro sauce is using the water the pasta is cooked in. The starchy pasta water will help emulsify the oils in the sauce and help it cling to the pasta better. It’ll also turn the sauce nice and silky and ever so slightly creamy. Process shots: add sauce to pan (photo 1), add pasta (photo 2), toss using pasta water (photo 3), toss through parmesan (photo 4).
What to serve with Pasta Pomodoro?
In the past I’ve added grilled chicken or Italian sausage, both work nicely. If you’re looking for a side I recommend garlic bread, cheesy pesto garlic bread or cheesy garlic bread! If you like the sound of this Italian classic then definitely make sure you check out my Penne Arrabiata and Tuna Puttanesca! For more similar recipes check out these beauties too:
Sun Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta Creamy Tomato Sausage Pasta Chicken and Chorizo Pasta Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Bruschetta Pasta
Alrighty, let’s tuck into the full recipe for this pasta pomodoro shall we?!
How to make Pasta Pomodoro (Full Recipe & Video)
If you loved this Pasta Pomodoro Recipe then be sure to pin it for later! Already made them or got a question? Give me a shout in the comments below and pick up your free ecookbook along the way!
