Spaghetti Pomodoro
Spaghetti Pomodoro: A Classic, Simple, and Delicious Italian Pasta
Spaghetti Pomodoro is a kind of alchemy that happens in a hot pan with just a few honest ingredients. This dish isn’t about fancy tricks or Michelin stars—it’s the kind of meal you’d find in a tucked-away trattoria, far from the tourists and their Instagram filters. It’s about restraint, a little patience, and knowing that sometimes, less is more.
Picture this: blistering heat, the late afternoon sun beating down on a sleepy Italian kitchen. Tomatoes, still warm from the vine, get tossed into a skillet with a heavy glug of olive oil—none of that cheap stuff, mind you, but the kind that smells like cut grass and sunshine. When garlic hits the oil, the room fills with a smell that’s equal parts nostalgia and comfort. It’s the smell of your Nonna’s kitchen if you were lucky enough to have one. Or maybe it’s the memory of that first trip to Rome when you wandered into a back-alley restaurant, famished, and were served the most honest plate of pasta you’d ever tasted.
This isn’t about showing off; it’s about doing justice to ingredients. Fresh basil gets torn—not chopped—to keep its integrity, tossed in at the last second so its peppery, floral punch doesn’t get lost in the sauce. You finish with a dusting of Parmigiano-Reggiano, just enough to remind you that sometimes, life can be rich and uncomplicated.
The Ultimate Equalizer
Spaghetti Pomodoro is the ultimate equalizer. It’s there when you’re broke, tired, or just in need of something that feels like home. It’s the taste of summer, of simpler times, of slowing down and savoring the little things. It’s pasta with a purpose.
If you’re interested in more recipes that I have learned from my travels, check out TravelingAmerican.org/Recipes.
Spaghetti Pomodoro
Servings:
INGREDIENTS
1/2 box of thick Spaghetti Noodles
25oz of Cherry tomatoes (the plastic container full of cherry tomatoes)
Bunch of Fresh Basil (No, dried will not do, buy it from the organic section or grow it)
4 cloves Garlic
6 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil + extra for topping
2 tbsp Rock salt for pasta water (your water must be as salty as the ocean!)
A triangle of Parmesan Cheese (Hand shredded)
US Customary – Metric
Instructions
1. Cut your cherry tomatoes in half and add them into the pan with a generous amount of salt and pepper.
2. Pour the Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a large pan.
3. Take Garlic Press and crush garlic into the oil.
3. Cook the tomatoes on medium-low to low heat. Soon, you see the juices leak out, you need to continuously stir.
4. Tear the basil into pieces, and throw them into the pan, and stir slowly and all the basil to infuse.
5. The more you cook the tomatoes, the more juice you will have come out. Around ten minuets, take the basil out of the pan and straight into the blender.
6. Pulse the sauce for about three seconds, YOU MUST BLEND GENTLY AND QUICKLY!
7. Add your sault, preferably sea rock salt into a large pot with five liters of boiling water before twisting and dropping the pasta in. You might need to lightly push the pasta into the water with a spoon.
8. For al dente pasta, cook for 13 minutes or according to exact package directions. Cook it one less minute then the box package says.
9. While the pasta is cooking, add the blended sauce back into the pan on low heat.
10. Break small pieces of fresh basil leaves into the sauce for an even stronger basil taste, stirring occasionally.
11. Make sure to stir, stir, stir! At the point the pasta is almost cooked, collect a mug full of pasta cooking water.
12. Next add the pasta using tongs into the saucepan. Mix it through ensuring the sauce coats the pasta evenly.
13. Use your extra pasta water and add a small amount into the pan. Toss the spaghetti al pomodoro pasta – if you can!
14. The finishing touch is a drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and fresh basil. Then shred cheese over the pasta and give it a toss.
15. Now it is time to shine, place pasta on the plate and make it look beautiful. This is what people will remember. How it looked when it reached the table.
