Pomodoro Dogma

the internet discovers a pasta pastime

There are some essential recipes every home cook should know sitting just below their consciousness. A big milestone for any new-ish person in the kitchen is the ability to cook on the fly by tossing together a few simple ingredients without measuring or reading a recipe. You just *know* this shit like the back of your hand and you can adjust as you go. Some of those recipes might be a basic guacamole, stir fry, rice and beans, some kinda salad with simple dressing, and of course a basic pasta with tomato sauce. Enter: Pomodoro. 

Some of y’all might be familiar but to our amazement we’re realizing chunks of the internet are finding pasta and tomato sauce for the first time. Like most of Tik Tok or this NYT writer who says they “developed this recipe”. L-O-fucking-L. Gotta get those views tho.

Pomodoro is an Italian staple that relies on a few key ingredients: pasta, olive oil, tomatoes, basil, garlic. Everyone and their momma has their own tweaks they do when making pomodoro but as long as you build on that foundation of flavor, it’s hard to fuck this up. Whatever you do after that is between you and your taste buds. 

Tanzina Vega @tanzinavega

This is spaghetti with tomato sauce. That’s all it is.

The New York Times @nytimes

This delicious pasta al pomodoro leans heavily into three ingredients: fresh summer tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil and a little garlic. https://t.co/64a2nHDlqv https://t.co/XIorFqamgW

Tomatoes are at their peak in late summer and pomodoro isn’t nearly as heavy as most pasta dishes, making this an ideal summertime dinner. So now let’s burn this into your memory banks and you’ll be throwing dinner together in no time. We grew up believing that if you used the best tomatoes, you really didn’t need to cook this sauce. Sure, you can strain out all the seeds and skins but who had the fucking time? Nobody we knew. So this is our peak tomato, peak lazy version of the famous dish that we grew up with.

Late Summer Tomato Pomodoro

Makes 4 servings

1 pound dried angel hair pasta

¼ cup pasta cooking water

5 cups chopped fresh tomatoes

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 large clove of garlic

½ teaspoon salt

Juice from 1 lemon, about 2 tablespoons

2 teaspoon nutritional yeast, optional as hell

Fresh basil

Cook your pasta according to the package instructions. Before you drain it, set the ¼ of the starchy water aside.

As you cook the pasta, chop up the tomatoes. To avoid having a shitton of tomato seeds in there, cut the top off the tomatoes and kinda squeeze them lightly over the sink so that most of the seeds come out. They don’t bring any flavor to the party and will only water your sauce down.

Once the pasta is draining, warm up the olive oil in the pot you used over a medium low heat. We aren’t trying to fry shit, just wanna cook the garlic a little so you can still kiss the people you love. Grate the garlic right into the warmed oil and stir it around just until the garlic starts to turn golden, about 30 seconds. Turn off the heat and gently add the tomatoes, salt, and lemon juice. Stir this all up until the oil and tomatoes are nicely mixed together then add the pasta and pasta water. Stir until everything is incorporated then add the nooch if you’re using it. Toss in as much torn basil as you like, we do about ½ a cup, and serve right away.

Cook that a few times and you’ll know it back to front. You’ll get so good that you’ll start tweaking it to your liking- more garlic? Obviously. More basil? Fuck it why not. Dial this dish into your personal preferences and amaze onlookers as you effortlessly assemble dinner in no time. 

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Next week Michelle is headed to New York and will be sharing a recipe for one of her favorite foods to fly with. Then quicker than you can say boo, it’s gonna be October and time for our top secret pumpkin bread and all things autumn. 

Got any restaurants y’all think Michelle should hit up in NYC? Drop them in the comments.