I have dreams to this day about the tomato pastas I would make myself as a postdoc 10 years ago. I was living alone, dating lots, hitting up all the amazing New Haven, CT clubs (this is half tongue in cheek, but only half), and during the summer I’d bike down to the quite excellent farmers market, drop like $60 on these awesome tomatoes, and treat myself (and perhaps my companion of the moment) to dried spaghetti with the best, simplest pasta with tomato sauce ever. I can’t remember exactly how I cooked it nowadays, since I have lost the technique in a fog of romance, from which it can never be fully extracted. However, I imagine it was something more or less like this:
Get amazing tomatoes (I was using whatever big luscious ones they had at the farmers market. Think brandywines or green zebras or whatever instead of romas.)
Peel them (or don’t, depending on the tomato),
Coarsely dice and salt them, put them in a strainer over a bowl.
Boil some water, salt it.
Put a pan on medium low heat or whatever.
throw the pasta into the water.
put some olive oil in the warming pan and throw in some minced garlic. Let it cook gently for a couple minutes, and don’t let it color.
throw the tomatoes in the pan (reserve the juice for now)
cook the tomatoes for just a couple minutes till they break down a bit, which shouldn’t take long if they’ve been salted and peeled, and if they’re fancy soft heirloom ****ers.
take the pasta out of the water with tongs and throw into the pan. There should hopefully be enough starch clinging to the noodles to thicken the sauce slightly. But don’t overdo it. The sauce should already be somewhat thick because you strained out the excess juice. Add some juice if it’s too thick.
throw in a knob of butter and a bunch of herbs. I like thyme, basil, oregano and such. use, like, a lot of herbs. Perhaps 1 or 2 ****tons, to taste.
stir rapidly with the tongs. add a little cheese if you like (don’t add a really strong tasting parmesan. If you have a milder one, that’s good, or pecorino or something)
put it on a plate
add more cheese
eat, and drink wine
take your companion(s) to bed
wake up in the morning before they get up, and make them
breakfast potatoes.
repeat