Spaghetti al pomodoro e basilico — spaghetti with tomato and basil
Italian cooking at its simplest, and one of the hardest dishes to get just right: good peeled tomatoes softened in garlic-infused olive oil, fresh basil torn in at the end, spaghetti finished in the sauce until beautifully coated, and Parmesan grated at the table.
Ingredients for two
| 220 g | Spaghetti 110 g per person, durum wheat, preferably bronze-die pasta with a matt, rough surface that holds the sauce, such as De Cecco No. 12 (12 minutes on the packet) or Barilla No. 5 (9 minutes); always cook for 1 minute less |
| 400 g | Tinned whole peeled tomatoes, such as San Marzano (400 g tin) 1 whole tin with its juice, San Marzano or Mutti |
| 40 g | Extra virgin olive oil 4 tbsp: 3 for the sauce and 1 to finish |
| 10 g | Garlic 2 cloves, crushed but left whole |
| 15 g | Fresh basil 15–20 large leaves, a generous handful or a third of a bunch |
| 40 g | Parmesan or Grana Padano (250 g piece) 2 heaped tbsp per person, freshly grated at the table |
| 3 g | Fine salt 1/2 heaped tsp, for the sauce |
| 30 g | Coarse salt 2 heaped tbsp for 3 litres cooking water, 10 g per litre |
| 150 g | Water pasta cooking water, added by the ladle in step 5; excludes the 3 litres in the saucepan |
Method
- Bring 3 litres water to the boil in a large covered saucepan with the 30 g coarse salt. Meanwhile, tip the peeled tomatoes and their juice into a bowl and roughly crush by hand or with a fork, removing any tough skin or white stalk ends. Peel the garlic and crush the whole cloves with the flat of a knife, without chopping.
- Heat 30 g olive oil with the garlic in a 28 cm sauté pan over a medium-low heat. Let it sizzle gently for 2 minutes, turning the cloves, until barely golden and fragrant, never brown. Add the crushed tomatoes, salt and 3 torn basil leaves.
- Cook uncovered over a medium-low heat for 12–15 minutes at a steady simmer without splattering, stirring occasionally and crushing larger pieces with a spoon. The sauce should thicken, turn from bright red to orange-red, and show beads of oil on the surface. A spoon drawn across the base should leave a trail that slowly closes. If it sticks or becomes pasty before the pasta is ready, reduce the heat to low and loosen with 50 g pasta water. Leave the garlic cloves in until the pasta goes in.
- Add the spaghetti to the boiling water once the sauce has cooked for 5–7 minutes, or after 3–4 minutes for De Cecco No. 12, never earlier: the sauce should have the pasta's cooking time left. If the water boils too soon, lower the heat and keep it simmering under a lid, then return to a rolling boil before adding the pasta. If it is not boiling yet, keep the sauce over a low heat while you wait. Pasta must never wait for its sauce; the sauce can wait for the pasta. Stir for the first minute to prevent sticking and cook for 1 minute less than the packet instructions, 8 minutes for Barilla No. 5 or 11 for De Cecco No. 12, until still firm in the centre.
- Remove the garlic cloves from the sauce and turn the heat to high. Transfer the spaghetti directly from the saucepan to the sauté pan with tongs, without draining in a colander or rinsing. Keep the cooking water within reach. Add half a ladleful (75 g) of pasta water and toss vigorously with tongs for 1–2 minutes, lifting the strands, until the sauce is creamy, clings to every strand and leaves no loose liquid at the bottom. If dry, add more pasta water a spoonful at a time, up to another 75 g.
- Turn off the heat. Tear the remaining basil by hand over the pan, never with a knife, which darkens it. Drizzle with the remaining 10 g olive oil, toss once more and serve immediately on warm plates, heated for 5 minutes in an 80°C oven or rinsed in very hot water and dried. Grate the Parmesan at the table.
Lighter version
- Spaghetti : 140 g
- Extra virgin olive oil : 25 g
In step 2, heat 15 g oil (1 1/2 tbsp) with the garlic instead of 30 g. Keep the final 10 g drizzle in step 6, as it provides much of the flavour.
In step 3, a whole tin is generous for 140 g pasta. Cook for the full 15 minutes until the sauce is thick enough that a spoon's trail no longer closes, and time the pasta to match. In step 5, toss over a high heat for 2–3 minutes and add pasta water only if the mixture is dry.
70 g pasta per person, with 1 1/2 tbsp oil in the sauce and 1 tbsp to finish instead of 3 plus 1. The sauce is the same, just more reduced. Serve a generous vegetable starter.
On your plate
Recipe
676 kcal · protein 22 g · carbs 77 g · fat 29 g
Quantities per person
- 110 g Spaghetti
- 200 g Tinned whole peeled tomatoes, such as San Marzano (400 g tin)
- 20 g Extra virgin olive oil
- 5 g Garlic
- 7.5 g Fresh basil
- 20 g Parmesan or Grana Padano (250 g piece)
- 1.5 g Fine salt
- 15 g Coarse salt
- 75 g Water
Cooking tips
This is a dairy meal, so serve no meat. Without the cheese it is pareve, but loses its protein component. For a Neapolitan variation, replace the Parmesan with 50 g ricotta in the centre of each plate after taking the pasta off the heat. The sauce can be made the day before; it keeps in the fridge for 3 days and develops a rounder flavour. In the evening, bring the pasta water to the boil and gently reheat the sauce in the sauté pan with 2 tbsp water while the pasta cooks, then follow steps 5 and 6, for 20–25 minutes overall. For the onion version, replace the garlic with half a very finely sliced yellow onion, softened in the oil for 8 minutes without colouring before adding the tomatoes. In summer, replace the tin with 600 g very ripe halved datterini or cherry tomatoes, or plum tomatoes such as Roma. Cook for 20 minutes, then pass through a food mill to remove the skins and seeds, or leave rustic.
A Neapolitan classic: the garlic version from the trattorias of Naples and the onion version from northern Italy.
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