Explore the versatility of Italy’s most used ingredient: the tomato. Carla prepares a delicious bruschetta with raw tomato and demonstrates how to make a classic, grated tomato sauce.
Stay connected with us:
magnolia.com
follow us @magnolia
I stand by what I said before the second bite was just as good as the First it is basically impossible to eat Italian food without running face first into Tomatoes which are so foundational to Italian cooking and to Italian cuisine in this chapter I am going to show you two different recipes that really give you a sense of all of the tomatoes versatility first up I have a
Brusketta with marinated tomato in which the tomatoes are raw but marinated and it just brings out all of their beautiful Saucy lusciousness then I have a 10minute spicy grated tomato sauce with pasta where the tomatoes are grated and barely cooked so you get all of that amazing tomato
Flavor for the Bretta I have chosen Roma tomatoes or plum tomatoes I’m using these because they actually have very few seeds which is nice when you’re having a raw tomato to not have that big seed packet to take out the core I’m just using the tip of my
Knife once they’re all corded I’m going to go ahead and quarter them as I’m going I’m transferring everything into this dish this is going to be the dish that I marinate all of the tomatoes in all right so as I go I’m going to season along the way with salt and pepper
All right this is fresh oregano there’s so many fresh herbs that pair really beautifully with tomatoes oregano being one of them margarum Teragon definitely basil and I’m not actually going to serve the sprigs of oregano at the end they’re really here to lend a lot of flavor so I’m just leaving them whole
And tucking them into the dish another flavor that goes amazing with tomatoes is gar garlic so I’m going to use a few cloves but again these are going in to be part of the marinade and their flavor is going to infuse into the olive oil the
Olive oil is going to infuse into the tomatoes so that garlicky flavor will eventually get into the Tomato flesh but no one has to eat a big raw clove of garlic at the end I’m just going to use the flat side of the knife give those a whack
Garlic is in I’m just going to season around so that the garlic got some love and I wouldn’t want to toss this Tomatoes when they’re very ripe are you know delicate and we don’t want to smash and Bash the Flesh of the Tomato the recipe calls for a cup of
Olive oil you might need a little bit more you might need a little bit less depending on the dimension of your dish so I’m not going to measure because I am going to add until I know we’re there which is just enough olive oil to barely
Kiss the top layer of the tomatoes and you really do want them just barely submerged I know it seems like a lot of olive oil olive oil is not inexpensive this oil once the tomatoes have been marinated can be strained and used again it’s one of my favorite noises
All right so as these sit they will release some of their juices and you’ll see tomato juice start to mingle with the olive oil so this looks beautiful and it will also taste beautiful if you eat it right away but it is better to
Give it a little bit of time 1 Hour 2 hours at room temperature is awesome and if you think about it the day before maybe you just got your Market Hall home get your Tomatoes prepped up letting it sit overnight covered in the fridge for 24 hours is like the ideal
Situation so I’m going to go ahead and cover these you don’t have to flip them you don’t have to turn them just cover them and pop them in the fridge okay so I have let my tomatoes sit for as long as I could I’m going to grab them from the
Fridge so you can see the way the tomatoes have kind of shrunken down a little bit and now this is is a beautifully infused tomatoey Herby garlicky olive oil marinade so to build the brusketta I have some nice toasted country bread something crusty you want something
That’s got like a little bit of texture can stand up to all of these Saucy ingredients if you like raw garlic take a cut end of a garlic clove and just rub it over the toasted bread I’m using a slotted spatula you can use a slotted spoon anything just so
That as you pick up the tomatoes you don’t want to pull a ton of oil with you but enough and just laying that over my toasty garlic rubbed bread I always season at the end with a little extra salt this is flaky salt you can continue to use kosher but something that will
Just have that bright hit of salt right at the end and a little bit of texture and this is my dad’s vinegar so in addition to growing tomatoes and overloading us with an insane harvest in August um my dad recycles the little bits of red wine left in each bottle and
Makes his own vinegar so I’m going to add a few drops of that and the acidity will really complement the flavors of the Tomato I do this on Capra salads also just a little extra brightness is going to bring out all of the flavors a little pepper and you can garnish with any
Fresh tender herb that you have I’m using basil this to me is like a beautiful summer meal starter and just have something simple and beautiful and appetizing and delicious last thing a tiny bit more of the oil from the marinade M so many flavors I get the garlic
Flavor off of the bread but then this delicious soft juicy tender sweet tomato on top and then the salt and the pepper and the grassy pepperiness of the olive oil with the vinegar I love it so much so I hope this empowers you to take a raw tomato and turn it into something
Really really special I’m going to get started now on the 10 minute spicy grated tomato sauce I love this method of grating Tomatoes instead of chopping or food processing them because it actually removes the skin and kind of peels back the seeds at the same time it is a really fast and very
Efficient way to get a Big Tomato down into almost a pulp the ingredients for this dish are three large beef steak tomatoes which is about 2 lb 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil kosher salt freshly ground pepper a handful of fresh basil sprigs plus a few leaves and a
Pound of spaghetti now I’m going to start by grating the tomatoes the first thing that you should do is cut off the base of the Tomato this is going to expose the Flesh and then you won’t end up trying to grate through the skin for your very first motion so now that the
Flesh is exposed I’m using this large grater if you have a box grater use the large holes of your box grater and then just making sure to keep your fingers out of the way just start grating the tomato and you can see even though I’ve
Just done a little bit that the skin of the tomato is just f Ling back and not going through the teeth of the grater and the flesh is falling through so once I get down to the top the tomato is really pushed back I’m stopping at the core all the flimsy
Pieces of the skin and then you just set that aside so having a tomato sauce that can cook really quickly as opposed to something that’s going to be simmering for hours and hours over the stove means that I’m going to preserve ve that really fresh Taste of the Tomato because it’s barely
Cooked I want to make sure I have all that lovely tomato juice I have four cloves of garlic here for the sauce and I’m thinly slicing the garlic because again I want everything in the sauce to cook really quickly and so having the garlic in smaller pieces means it will also cook
Quickly so now with my garlic prepped and my tomatoes grated I’ve got my olive oil basil red pepper flakes some boiling water for your pasta and it’s time to make the sauce the first thing I’m going to do is set this pot over medium he heat and then add the olive
Oil garlic going to go into the pan season every step of the way with salt and pepper red chili flakes and I’m also going to put a few whole Sprigs of Basil this is going to infuse the sauce with a delicious Herby flavor and Aroma as soon as the garlic is translucent going to go ahead and add the grated tomatoes and even though I seasoned the garlic now now I’ve seasoned the Tomato itself okay so this is exactly what I want to see because I want this to go fast there’s a nice rapid simmer going
On and this is going to go for about 10 minutes until it’s very slightly thickened and then I’ll give it another taste now for the pasta you could really use any shape that you like I’m using spaghetti because it’s just kind of a classic twirl check your package of pasta when
You drop it in every brand is a little bit different but in an Ideal World the pasta cooking time and the Tomato simmering time are going to be about the same um if you had to air on either side it would be okay to have your sauce
Waiting for your pasta but I would never want to have cooked pasta waiting for sauce because then the pasta would over cook because the pasta is going directly into the sauce it’s going to continue to cook in the sauce so taking it out when it’s a little less cooked than you
Ultimately want it is a smart move noodles and sauce are finally together and as I toss I’m looking for any of those large sprigs of Basil that were in the sauce if I were smart I would have taken these out first this is one of the fastest most delicious crowd-pleasing pastas you can
Make to finish the pasta I’ve got a little extra basil that I’m just going to tear to kind of release the Aromas add a little bit more black pepper and a little pinch of flaky salt with a little bit of the extra sauce left on the bottom of the plate I
Like to just make sure everybody’s got a tad new you can also pass the red chili flake at the table or you can just make an executive decision for everybody and that’s it pasta with spicy grated tomato Sauce the sauce is concentrated it’s bright it’s really really flavorful but it’s also clinging to the noodles in a really wonderful way this is delicious it is all about the Tomato such a simple dish so few ingredients but taking care with every single step to get the ideal
Texture of both the sauce and the noodle little bit of herbaceousness from the basil the seasoning is right on the money I love this dish you will never get sick of eating it in this chapter we have focused on only one ingredient the Tomato today you learned how to make a
Bruscetta taking a raw tomato and really getting into an added value way of of serving it with the olive oil and garlic and herbs just infusing the actual tomato flesh and then in the 10 minute spicy graded tomato sauce making sure to maintain like the freshness and the
Flavor of that still warm out of the ground tomato cooking it to amplify those flavors maintaining all of its brightness I hope seeing these ways to use Tomatoes will inspire you to cook with tomatoes and try out some of these dishes