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| From Special Sauce |
I have been watching this new show on the Food Network called The Cooking Loft, and one day the theme was perfect pasta. Alex showed her "students" how to make this yellow tomato sauce which seemed pretty easy, and also yum, I never eat yellow tomatoes this way.
Of course, this time of year, yellow tomatoes aren't easy to find. And I didn't see the need to follow the recipe exactly since the whole point of this exercise is to come up with my own tomato sauce recipe.
One of the things I love about getting recipes online is that often people have made them and made changes to improve on them. This was no exception. I will copy the recipe over as it was written and indicate the changes I made as well.
Yellow Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
5 yellow beefsteak tomatoes, washed, core removed, a small "x" cut on the bottom of each
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
10 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thin
3 large shallots, peeled and sliced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Kosher salt
Freshly ground white pepper
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 pound dry pasta, such as penne or cavatappi
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup water
25 to 30 basil leaves, washed and dried
Grated Parmesan, to taste
Directions
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and salt the water generously. Prepare an ice bath for the tomatoes by filling a medium bowl with cold water and some ice cubes. Use a slotted spoon to plunge the tomatoes into the boiling water for about 1 to 2 minutes. The skin should show evidence of peeling away from the flesh of the tomatoes. Remove them from the water and plunge them into the ice bath. Allow the tomatoes to sit in the cool water so they stop cooking.
In a medium skillet, heat a tablespoon of the olive oil and add the garlic, shallots, and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the oregano and sugar. Stir to blend. Allow to cook, over low heat, until the shallots and garlic become tender and translucent.
Meanwhile, remove the tomatoes from the ice bath, peel off and discard the skin from each. Place them on a flat surface, quarter them and scoop out the seeds and "jelly" from each piece. Gather all the seeds in a strainer and push through the liquid that naturally surrounds the seeds. Discard the seeds. Reserve the liquid and tomato flesh.
Add the tomato and liquid to the shallot mixture and stir in about 1 tablespoon of salt and 1 teaspoon ground pepper. Turn the heat down to medium and cook until the tomato flesh starts to lose shape, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the water and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. If there are still some hard pieces, add a little more water and cook for a few more minutes. Taste for seasoning.
In a large pot, bring 6 quarts of water to a rolling boil. Add a generous amount of salt. The pasta water should taste like sea water. Add the pasta to the pot and stir so none of the pieces stick to the bottom as they cook. Cook the pasta until "al dente", chewy but not hard or raw tasting, 8 to 10 minutes, and drain the pasta in a colander until the sauce is finished. Reserve a little of the pasta cooking liquid in case you need it later.
Put the tomato sauce in the blender and puree until smooth. Slowly add the vinegar through the top of the blender as the sauce is blending. Next, pour the remaining olive oil through the top in a slow, steady stream. Blend in another cup of water then remove the sauce from the blender and taste for seasoning.
Pour most of the sauce into a large skillet and add the pasta. Toss to blend with a wooden spoon. If the sauce is too thick, add some of the pasta liquid to thin it out. Taste for seasoning. Add the basil leaves and sprinkle with cheese, if desired.
*****
Several reviewers said that the vinegar was too much, particularly when substituting red tomatoes for the yellow. So I used half of what it called for. I used slightly less oil, probably about 2/3 cup, because that's how much I had added when the sauce sounded like it was coming together in the food processor.
I was worried by how thin it seemed, but when added back to the pasta in the pot (I used corkscrews which had lovely lines for grabbing onto sauce), added a handful of parmesan and some basil, it really seemed to become a better texture.
Overall I would say there is too much salt! If I hadn't seasoned the shallots and garlic so vigorously, it may have been fine, but adding 1 tbsp later on proved to be too much. I'd rather have to add more than start out feeling I had too much.
I used fresh basil from my plant in the backyard for this, woo hoo. I think if I made this recipe again I'd chiffonade it so more bites had the flavor of basil.
Nathaniel said he thought it seemed a little spicy, but I'm wondering if he was tasting the pepper or garlic. I am not sure 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes is going to give a lot of a kick, but 10 garlic cloves might! You can see the oil on the pasta, so I'm not convinced it could go with even less, maybe 1/2 cup.
So this recipe is far from perfect, but it is the first try.
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