Spaghetti with Fresh tomato sauce

Tomatoes are at their best this month. With produce being at it’s peak, prices have dropped to €0.50c a kilo making this the right time to make some delicious tomato-based recipes.

Here is one of my family’s favorite recipe; spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce. Forget tinned tomatoes for the next weeks and work with fresh ones. All you need to do is peel them and chop them, then use them in the same way you would use the tinned ones.

Cooking times for fresh tomatoes has to be increased slightly, so you will need to get going a little bit before!

Before I give you this week’s recipe, I would like to share this link: Crying while eating I came across this site by accident, (as with most of the sites I visit on the net!) it’s quite funny and worth a visit!

Here is what you need to make enough pasta sauce to go with 500g of Pasta
2kg beef tomatoes (tadam Catt)
1 teaspoon sugar
Extra Virgin Olive oil
1 garlic clove – finely chopped
Fresh basil – torn into little pieces NOT chopped

Start off by placing the tomatoes in a large bowl and poring boiling water over them. Let them sit for 15 minutes and then discard the water. Now peel the tomatoes and deseed them, chop them roughly and set aside.

In a large deep pan, place the chopped garlic and about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and let the garlic sizzle for a while. Once the garlic softens add the tomatoes and simmer for about 30 minutes until the tomatoes thicken into a sauce consistency.

Now sprinkle in the sugar and cook for a further 10 minutes. Once the sauce is ready, switch the heat off, add the basil leaves and a generous drizzle of olive oil. This addition is important since the taste and vitamins in the olive oil will be transferred into your plate now that the temperature has been lowered.

Once you are ready to serve, add the cooked pasta to the sauce and serve warm with a generous grating of parmiggano reggiano.

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