eat rome
without leaving home
Since the dawn of time, controversy has
raged among non-italians over how to make a genuine pasta sauce.
I used to think Olive Oil was Popeyes girlfriend
Then
I married a Sicilian! But in the next five minutes, Romebuddy
will teach you the secret of true Italian cooking.
Follow the links below for four, quick, simple, and most importantly,
genuine Italian recipes
The important thing to realise about
Italian cooking is that you dont need to crap around with
ready-made sauces from the supermarket. Theyre invariably
horrible, with sharp, over-spicy flavouring.
However, although fresh is always best, you dont need to
spend extra on fresh tomatoes. Those tinned peeled plum tomatoes
that the British serve on toast for breakfast in their B&B
hotels can be picked up for as little as 8p a tin in some supermarkets,
and if you follow these recipes, theyll taste almost as
good as the ones fresh-picked in Mama Tommasinos garden
down in old Corleone. I can recommend the Cirio brand of tinned
toms though.
Pasta should be never be overcooked.
Seven or eight minutes boiling time is usually adequate, or five
or six minutes if you like it al dente (slightly hard).
Where these recipes mention oil, they mean Extra Virgin Olive
Oil. There is no substitute.
Finally, a word about sieving the tomatoes. You can just mash
the whole peeled tomatoes down into the pan but they are best
sieved. The sieve in question is not some fancy electric food-processor
attachment, but a small mechanical stainless-steel gadget, which
can be picked up for less than a fiver on any Italian street-market.
It looks like something your granny would have used to recycle
her ration books into custard-powder with during World War II,
but every modern Italian household has one in constant use today
and its the best and only thing for the job. Ill try
and shove in a gif of one soon so you can see what it looks like.
Moulinex make them, but theres many copies just as good.
Theyre harder to find in England and certainly more expensive
(if that big kitchen and catering equipment place on Westbourne
Grove is still there, they might have them), but worth the effort
of searching out.
All measures given are approximate, and youll want to experiment
according to taste and the number of portions you need.
Also, these sauces often taste even nicer when you reheat any
left over the next day - they mature.
The main thing is, these recipes are EASY. And QUICK.
GO for it!
The Basic Sicilian Pasta Sauce
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