Prep: 5 minutes Cook: 50 minutes Serves: 4
Recipe: Felicity Cloake
For a smooth sauce such as this, the experts recommend spaghetti, though richer, thicker sauces such as Del Conte’s can take shorter shapes like macaroni or penne. I recommend taking a tip from Boswell and Grueneberg, and finishing the pasta in the sauce itself, allowing it to absorb some of the tomato flavor and thicken the sauce in the process. (This doesn’t mean you can’t prepare the sauce in advance, of course – it’s a useful thing to have in the fridge. Just reheat it and add the parboiled pasta as below.)
Serve with extra basil and a generous dusting of grated parmesan, grana padano or pecorino, as suits your taste and budget – or forked straight from the pan as it is. It really is that good.
Ingredients:
- 1 medium carrot, washed
- 1 stick celery
- 1 red onion, peeled
- 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus a little extra to serve
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- 1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
- 2 x 400g tins whole plum tomatoes, preferably San Marzano
- 2 sprigs fresh basil, plus extra to serve
- 320g-400g spaghetti, depending on if it’s a first or main course
Directions:
- Chop the carrot, celery and onion into very small cubes (a food processor is the easiest way to do this, but be careful not to reduce it to a mush – to avoid this, start with the carrot, then add the celery and onion once it’s roughly chopped).
- Heat the oil in a wide, deep, heavy-based pan (it needs to be big enough to hold the pasta, too) over a medium flame, then saute the vegetables until soft, but not brown. Stir in the garlic and chilli, if using, and cook for another minute or so.
- Roughly mash, chop or squish the tomatoes into the pan along with their juice and the basil, and bring to a simmer. Turn down the heat until only the odd bubble rises to the surface, and cook for about 40 minutes, until thick. Turn off the heat, remove the basil and discard, then whizz with a stick blender until smooth, bearing in mind it will be hot. Season to taste and bring back to a simmer.
- Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water for about six minutes, until bendy, but still chalky in the middle. Drain well, reserving a cup of the cooking water, and transfer to the pureed sauce. Stir in and cook for another six to eight minutes, or until done to your liking, tossing regularly to make sure it doesn’t stick and adding a splash of the reserved cooking water if the sauce gets too thick.
- Divide between bowls and serve with a dash of extra oil, a scattering of basil leaves and some grated cheese.