Pasta della Testa
Ingredients
24oz (or more) fresh tomatoes, halved if cherry, cut into ½ inch pieces if larger
6 (or more) cloves garlic, whole (buttholes chopped off)
Dried herbs (oregano, Italian blend, herbes de provence, etc)
1 box high quality pasta (spend the extra dollar!)
1 block tasty cheese (or cheese equivalent)
Optional:
Canned tomatoes (whole, crushed, fire roasted, whatever you like and as much as you like)
Onion, diced (yellow, shallot, leek, all good)
Mushrooms, thinly sliced
Fresh basil, chopped
Mise en Place
Combine all tomatoes in one bowl as you cut them up, opened cans on the side
If using, mushrooms and onions should stay separate and will be cooked separately
I guess you could pre-combine your herbs but idk maybe the mise en place doesn't help that much on this recipe.
Bring a large pot of well-salted water to boil (it should taste of the sea, as they say)
Using mushrooms? Melt some butter in a medium pan over medium-high heat and cook the mushrooms in it for a while. Let them get really nice and brown. Mushrooms are hard to burn and have lots of water in them so just keep an eye on them while you work on the sauce. Stir once or twice while cooking and then remove from heat once done.
Preheat a deep, tall-sided pan or crock pot. Add enough olive oil to cover the bottom and wait a moment until oil is shimmering hot but not quite smoking. Toss garlic in and fry until the garlic is fragrant and golden brown. Quickly remove and reserve garlic using a fork or tongs, leaving the oil in the pot.
If you're using onions, add them to the garlic-infused oil now and cook for a few minutes until they start to brown but not burn.
Add the tomatoes to the pot and stir. Add a pinch of salt and black pepper to taste. Cover and cook tomatoes down (stirring occasionally) until a sauce begins to form. Crush any larger chunks with a wooden spoon if needed. This will take at least 30 minutes.
Once cooled, mince the fried garlic and add back to the sauce along with the browned mushrooms (if using). As the sauce thickens, add herbs and taste until it starts getting real good.
Meanwhile, cook pasta in the large pot until nearly al dente (about halfway done--it’ll cook a little bit more in the sauce). Reserve 1 cup of pasta water. Drain pasta, do not rinse.
Once the tomato sauce is nice and thicc, add the half-cooked pasta to the pot and gently toss with tongs. Add a splash of reserved pasta water if everything is getting too dense.
BOOM. Now you have a delicious pasta dish. Add cheese (or equivalent) and fresh basil and serve.
NOTES:
This is a flexible one and is easy to iterate upon depending on what you have on hand. The mushrooms and onions mentioned above are a good place to start but if you want to add ground or plant-based beef you can just straight up toss it into the sauce while it's simmering down. No need to brown it separately--it'll cook quickly in the boiling liquid and soak up that tasty flavor! Want a puttanesca vibe? Toss in some capers and diced black olives. Etc etc have fun!