Keep It Simple With Pasta al Pomodoro

Pasta al Pomodoro is by far one of the easiest pastas to make, and yet it is often the most poorly done. With soggy noodles and a watery sauce thats either too tart or just pain flavorless I tend to stay away from this dish when it shows up on restaurant menus. As the name would imply the key ingredient in this dish is tomatoes, so its best made towards the end of summer when the sun-ripened tomatoes are bursting with sugar. I also like to think of this dish more as a tomato stir-fry than a pasta sauce. You want to add the tomatoes to a hot pan with lots of oil, so the sugars in the tomatoes quickly caramelize creating a thick sauce that still tastes like fresh tomatoes. I always add the drained pasta to the sauce so that each strand is evenly coated, but this also means that the pasta is going to cook a little more after its been boiled. Thats why its important to cook the pasta al dente (usually about a minute less than what the package says).

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Marc Matsumoto is a culinary consultant and recipe repairman who shares his passion for good food through his website norecipes.com. For Marc, food is a life long journey of exploration, discovery and experimentation and he shares his escapades through his blog in the hopes that he inspires others to find their own culinary adventures. Marcs been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, and has made multiple appearances on NPR and the Food Network.