saturday spaghetti al pomodoro

February 28th, 2009

This was not what I had in mind when I went to my usual fruttivendolo (green grocer) this morning, I was thinking about something more complex, more special for saturday lunch. But in the end, when it was nearly lunch, all I wanted was a very simple spaghetti al pomodoro :) It was so good, we enjoyed it till the last bite! And I hope you too! Buon weekend!

I used very simple but good ingredients, I got all the vegetables from Gerardo, the fruttivendolo whom always give me the best seasonal vegetables. I think it is important to find a shop with people that you can trust. I compared it one day: the veggies I bought from supermarket and the veggies from him, and it really was different, the ones from supermarket did not have taste and very watery, but the other was full of flavour! Well, if you use good ingredients - like Italian says: non ci vuole tanto - I does not take much to make a good food. I hope you will enjoy it too!

Spaghetti al pomodoro

For 2, approximately 30 minutes to prepare

150g dried spaghetti

3 good ripe tomatoes

200 ml tomato in can

1 red scallion, very thinly sliced

3 anchovies in oil

1 tbsp capers in salt, washed

2 dried whole chillies

dried sicilian oregano, sea salt and pepper

flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

extra virgin olive oil

Heat 1,5l water, and in the meantime, peel the tomatoes, halved and spoon the seeds to a strainer to reserve to juice, then chop the tomatoes into big pieces. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in medium heat, add the sliced scallion, anchovies and a pinch or oregano, stir once in a while till the anchovies melt. Turn up the heat,  add the tomato pieces and washed capers, and stir for another 5 minutes, add the tomatoes in can, sprinkle with a pinch of oregano and let simmer with medium heat. When the water boils, add some coarse salt and cook the spaghetti until al dente. In the mean time, check the tomato sauce and adjust the seasoning with sea salt and pepper. When the pasta is ready, drain and add to the sauce, mix well. Transfer to serving plates, drizzle with abit of extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with chopped parsley and buon apetito!

PS: Because there is anchovies, we don’t eat the pasta with grated parmesan. If you omit the anchovies, then after drizzling the pasa with olive oil, grate some parmesan on top.

filed under: food