Home grown tomatoes need special treatment
I’m ever so proud of my tomato harvest and a good thing needs to be turned into even better dish: roasted tomatoes sauce for pasta all’ amatriciana.
Head straight to the recipe.
I might be cheating a bit because the original amatriciana sauce is made with guanciale and bucatini. Forgive the sin but both guanciale, the dry cured pork cheeks, and bucatini are not quite in the forefront over here (ahem, 2nd Covid wave, ahem). As for the Italian town of Amatrice is well out of reach. You can still enjoy the delicious pasta all’amatriciana with a tweak.
Roast tomatoes sauce
The first step to a smooth tomato sauce is choosing the right tomatoes, ripe but firm. Fortunately, my tomato plants, which I have been nursing since April, still produce a fair amount of fruit every few days. From these 10 plants I get a fair amount of 3 kilos of tomatoes every week, nothing better for my home-made sauce.
The next step is to clean and peel the tomatoes. I could choose boiling and skin but I preferred roasting them. A wise choice indeed: cut in half the tomatoes and roast on a bed of chopped onion, a bit of garlic, some thyme from my garden (which I did take a lot of care and grooming this summer as well) and some Greek olive oil in a pan for 30 minutes.
Once the 30-minute period passed, the skin comes off the tomatoes with a pinch of your fingers. Keep the thyme aside and transfer all the baked ingredients into a food processor, then whizz. Your sauce is ready to make any pasta sauce you love.
Let’s make pasta all’amatriciana.
Pasta all'amatriciana with roasted tomatoes
Ingredients
For the roast tomatoes sauce
- 500 gr pomodori tomatoes
- 1 onion roughly chopped
- 1 clove of garlic one sheet of roasted tomatoes in my case
- 3-4 springs of thyme
All'amatriciana
- 150 gr guanciale or pancetta cubed
- 50 ml white wine
- A pinch of paprika flakes if you like it spicy
- 500 gr bucatini or pasta of choice
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- Pecorino to grate on top
Instructions
- For the Tomato sauce, simply layer a baking tray with the chopped onion, a clove of garlic and a bit of olive oil. Roast for 30-35 minutes at 180C. Once soft, let them cool down a bit and pinch the skins of the tomatoes. Transfer to a food processor and give them a whizz. You can keep in the fridge for 2 days or freeze for later.
- Heat up a bit of olive oil in your pot and cook the pancetta over medium-low heat. If using paprika flakes, add them in now.
- Once the pancetta cubes turn lightly golden, add the white wine and reduce by three quarters.
- Follow in with the tomatoes and simmer for 10–15 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Taste and add salt to your taste.
- Cook the pasta in a pan of heavily salted boiling water for 8–10 minutes, or as per packet instructions. Once the pasta is al dente, drain and add it to the sauce, tossing to make sure the pasta is evenly coated.
- Serve straight away with plenty of grated Pecorino.
Notes
The way you place and decorate your pasta dish can me as simple or fancy as you wish, it always represents the current mood of the cook, such as hasty, tender, snobbish, playful etc.
For more pasta recipes check here.
from London with love,
Eugenia
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