Basic tomato sauce, stracciatella, pangrattato
To quote Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald in one of my favourite SNP songs, ‘Let’s call the
whole thing o¥’: ‘You like tomayto and I like tomahto’. Of course, there are many ways to make
a¬tomato sauce. You can use fresh tomatoes or canned, but should you use onion or garlic, or
both? What about the sofrito? That base of carrot, celery and onion, the backbone of Italian
cooking. And what herbs? Basil, thyme or parsley? And do you add them at the start or at the
end? Some cooks blend the sauce for a velvety £nish, others prefer a good chunky texture.
Some £nish their sauce with olive oil, others with a knob of butter. Then what about the
cooking times? Fast and furious or slow and steady? The answers are really all up to you.
Here I give you my basic, no-fuss tomato sauce: canned tomatoes, garlic, basil and butter
(I like the gloss butter gives) with a medium cooking time. Serve adorned with a generous
dollop of stracciatella or bu¥alo mozzarella and a sprinkling of crisp, golden breadcrumbs.
115
Serves 4
3 garlic cloves
100 ml extra-virgin olive oil,
plus extra for drizzling
400 g canned whole peeled
tomatoes
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 basil sprig
sea salt
2 slices of day-old crusty bread,
such as sourdough (I prefer
fresh breadcrumbs, but
panko breadcrumbs are
a good substitute)
zest of 1 lemon
125 g stracciatella or
bualo mozzarella
grated Parmigiano Reggiano,
to serve
FRESH PASTA FOR 4
reginette (mafaldine),
busiate, tagliatelle
DRIED PASTA FOR 4
any long pasta
Heat a heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Finely chop
two ofthe garlic cloves.
When the pan is hot, add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the
chopped garlic and sizzle for 20 seconds, then empty in the can
of tomatoes to stop the garlic from burning. Fill the can halfway
with water and pour that in, too. Give everything a big stir and
take a deep breath. Add the butter, basil and a generous pinch of
salt. Reduce the heat to low, cover with a lid and leave to simmer
for 30 minutes while you get on with the rest of the recipe.
Bring a large saucepan of water to a lively boil and season as
salty as the sea.
Meanwhile, cut the bread into chunks. Using a food processor,
pulse the bread intro breadcrumbs ranging from very ne to
slightly bigger.
Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying
pan over medium–high heat. Throw in the remaining whole
garlic clove, along with the breadcrumbs, and sauté for
5minutes or until golden and crisp. Drain the breadcrumbs
on a piece of paper towel and allow to cool. Discard the
garlic clove.
When the sauce is ready, cook the pasta until al dente. Using
tongs, ing the pasta directly into the sauce, along with 125 ml
(½ cup) of the cooking water and the lemon zest. Toss the pasta
in the sauce until it is really well coated and the sauce sticks to
each strand.
Divide the pasta among bowls. Plop a heaped tablespoon of
stracciatella or bualo mozzarella in the centre of each bowl
and top with the breadcrumbs. Grate Parmigiano Reggiano
over the top and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil.