Pasta Pomodoro is an easy, classic Italian pasta recipe!

I love this pasta recipe so much because of the silky, delicious sauce that coats the noodles. It’s not a plain old spaghetti with red sauce recipe. It’s much, much more than that.

I spotted this recipe for Pasta Pomodoro in a Bon Appetit magazine about 10 years back. There was great information in the accompanying article about secrets to making good pasta sauces, so I’m including a lot of those secrets here for you.

Ingredients needed:

• olive oil
• onion
• garlic
• red pepper flakes
• canned, peeled whole tomatoes
• kosher salt and table salt
• fresh basil
• spaghetti
• butter
• Parmesan cheese

How to make Pasta Pomodoro:

Add a small handful of kosher salt to a pot of boiling water, then drop in the pasta.  The noodles absorb water, so you’re actually seasoning the interior of an otherwise bland pasta. For this recipe, you’ll cook the noodles until they’re about 2 minutes from being totally done.

Don’t dump the pasta water! Starchy, salty pasta water is the secret ingredient in most sauces. Save 1/2 cup of the pasta water for tossing with the pasta and sauce later in the prep process.

Heat olive oil in a skillet, and then sauté onion and garlic.

Then you’ll add in red pepper flakes, puréed tomatoes, kosher salt and fresh basil.

You’ll add 1/2 cup of the pasta water to the sauce to loosen it up a bit. Then you’ll use tongs to pick up a noodle to test for doneness and then to transfer the noodles from pot to pan and toss the noodles in the sauce. Then you’ll cook the noodles in the sauce for about 2 minutes.

And finally, you’ll add some butter and Parmesan cheese to the pan to complete your Pasta Pomodoro.

The butter and the cheese will melt into the sauce to create the silky texture that you’re looking for. It’s delicious!

Here are some things that Bon Appetit recommends for making the perfect pasta sauce:

• Forget the pot- use a pan (what the pros do to cook almost-done pasta and sauce together- until there’s pomodoro clinging to every bite of pasta.)
• Build the foundation– Make a classic pan sauce with olive oil, garlic, vegetables and pasta water.
• Work the saute pan: Undercook the pasta by a couple of minutes, then finish cooking it in a saute pan with the sauce’s flavorful liquid.
• Everything’s better with butter: The secret to rich and silky sauces is extra fat.  Finish your sauce with olive oil, butter or both.
• Cheese is not just a garnish: Enrich the sauce with cheese (mixed in and melted), skip pre-grated cheese, grate it finely and think beyond Parmesan.
• It should look as good as it tastes: a well designed pasta bowl makes for a beautiful presentation- a broad bowl w/ high sides keeps the pasta warm, and a white bowl makes the colors in the sauce pop.
• Practice makes perfect pasta– step by step cheat sheet:  salt pasta water, saute vegetables for sauce, pour (reserved water onto vegetables), transfer pasta to pan with sauce, add more pasta water to sauce, stir in butter, sprinkle in fresh herbs, toss and plate.

And there’s your perfect Pasta Pomodoro- hot pasta noodles with the best, simple-to-make sauce ever. Enjoy!

Here are a few more pasta recipes you might like to try:

• Creamy Gruyere and Shrimp Pasta
• Pasta Rustica
• Tomato Beef Pasta
• Christmas Pasta
• Chicken Caesar Pasta
• Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage
• Garlic Bacon Pasta
• Skillet Pasta Carbonara

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