Read The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook Online
Authors: The Editors at America's Test Kitchen
Tags: #Cooking
The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (77 page)
MATCHING PASTA SHAPES WITH SAUCE
In Italy there is a fine art to matching pasta shapes and sauces, but in the test kitchen, we are a bit freer with the pairing and endorse just one general rule: you should be able to eat the pasta and sauce easily in each mouthful. This means that the texture and consistency of the sauce should work with the pasta shape. And no matter what the shape of the pasta or type of sauce, we adamantly believe that the pasta, not the sauce, should be the focal point.
Long strands are best with smooth sauces or pestos or light sauces, such as oil and garlic. In general, wider long noodles, such as fettuccine, can more easily support slightly chunkier sauces than can very thin noodles like spaghetti. Wide pastas like fettuccine or tagliatelle are also well suited to creamy sauces like Alfredo. Short tubular or molded pasta shapes do an excellent job of trapping chunkier sauces. Sauces with very large chunks are best with shells, rigatoni, or other large tubes. Sauces with small to medium chunks pair well with fusilli or penne.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
With pasta on hand, dinner can be just a few minutes away. Rather than reaching for a jar of sauce, we developed a quick tomato sauce that can be tossed with spaghetti, ziti, ravioli and more. To cook this brightly flavored, complex sauce in the time it takes to boil pasta, we chose minimally processed crushed tomatoes, which have a fresh taste but are already pureed. Minced onion sautéed in butter (rather than olive oil) greatly enhanced the flavor of the tomatoes. And adding sugar, garlic, and oregano to the cooked onions further boosted our sauce’s flavor, as did adding chopped basil and olive oil just before serving.
MAKES ENOUGH FOR 1 POUND OF PASTA
High-quality canned tomatoes will make a big difference in this sauce. Grate the onion on the large holes of a box grater.
2 | tablespoons unsalted butter |
¹⁄ | cup grated onion |
1 | teaspoon minced fresh oregano or ¹⁄ |
Salt and pepper | |
2 | garlic cloves, minced |
1 | (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes |
¹⁄ | teaspoon sugar |
2 | tablespoons chopped fresh basil |
1 | tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil |
Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, oregano, and ¹⁄
2
teaspoon salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened and lightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes and sugar, bring to simmer, and cook until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Off heat, stir in basil and oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.
WHEN COOKWARE TURNS FOOD TINNY
When acidic ingredients are cooked in “reactive” pans, such as those made of aluminum or unseasoned cast iron, trace amounts of metal can loosen and leach into the food. Although these minute amounts are not harmful to consume, they may impart unwanted metallic flavors.
To see for ourselves, we simmered tomato sauce in an aluminum Dutch oven and in seasoned and unseasoned cast-iron Dutch ovens. As a control, we also cooked tomato sauce in a stainless steel pot. Tasters noticed a strong taste of iron in the sauce cooked in the unseasoned cast-iron pot and a more subtle metallic taste in the sauce cooked in the aluminum pot. The sauces cooked in seasoned cast iron (which has layers of oil compounds protecting the surface of the pan) and stainless steel tasted just fine. We then sent samples of each sauce to an independent lab to test for the presence of iron and aluminum and found that unseasoned cast iron did indeed release the most molecules of metal. The sauce from this pot contained nearly 10 times more iron (108 mg/kg) than the sauce from the seasoned cast-iron pot, which contained only a few more milligrams of iron than the sauce from the stainless steel pot. The sauce from the aluminum pot showed the presence of 14.3 mg/kg of aluminum, compared to less than 1 mg/kg in the sauce from the stainless steel pot. The verdict? Avoid reactive cookware when cooking acidic foods, since it can compromise flavor.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
For a multidimensional marinara sauce that would take less than an hour to prepare, we chose canned whole tomatoes for their flavor and texture, hand-crushing them and removing the hard core and stray bits of skin at the same time. A minced onion lent our sauce sweet flavor. We boosted tomato flavor by sautéing the tomatoes until they glazed the bottom of the pan, after which we added their liquid. We also shortened the simmering time by using a skillet instead of a saucepan (the greater surface area of a skillet encourages faster evaporation and flavor concentration). Red wine added depth and complexity and uncooked tomatoes, basil, and olive oil added just before serving, gave our sauce a bright, fresh finish.
MAKES ENOUGH FOR 1 POUND OF PASTA
Chianti or Merlot work well for the dry red wine. We like a smoother marinara, but if you prefer a chunkier sauce, give it just three or four pulses in the food processor in step 4.
2 | (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes |
3 | tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil |
1 | onion, chopped fine |
2 | garlic cloves, minced |
2 | teaspoons minced fresh oregano or ¹⁄ |
¹⁄ | cup dry red wine |
3 | tablespoons chopped fresh basil |
Salt and pepper | |
Sugar |
1.
Pour tomatoes and juice into strainer set over large bowl. Open tomatoes with hands and remove and discard seeds and fibrous cores; let tomatoes drain excess liquid, about 5 minutes. Remove ³⁄
4
cup tomatoes from strainer and set aside. Reserve 2¹⁄
2
cups tomato juice and discard remainder.
2.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in 12-inch skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook until softened and lightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in garlic and oregano and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
3.
Stir in strained tomatoes and increase heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring often, until liquid has evaporated, tomatoes begin to stick to bottom of pan, and brown fond forms around pan edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Stir in wine and cook until thick and syrupy, about 1 minute. Stir in reserved tomato juice, scraping up any browned bits. Bring to simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thick, 8 to 10 minutes.
4.
Transfer sauce and reserved tomatoes to food processor and pulse until slightly chunky, about 8 pulses. Return sauce to now-empty skillet, stir in basil and remaining 1 tablespoon oil, and season with salt, pepper, and sugar to taste.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
Tomatoes and cream are seemingly incompatible—an imbalance of the tomatoes’ acidity and the cream’s richness can produce a sauce that’s too sharp, too sweet, or lacking in tomato flavor. We wanted a smooth, full-flavored sauce in which the tomatoes and cream complemented each other. And we wanted to be able to make it year-round. We found that canned crushed tomatoes were the best product to use—they’re readily available, bright in flavor, and easy to puree in the food processor. Cooking a little tomato paste with some onion and garlic deepened the flavor of the sauce, as did adding sun-dried tomatoes. A pinch of red pepper flakes, a splash of wine, and a little minced prosciutto lent depth—as did adding a bit of raw crushed tomatoes and another splash of wine at the last minute. As for adding the cream, the simplest approach was best—the sauce tasted most balanced when we stirred the cream into the finished tomato mixture and brought it up to temperature before tossing it with the pasta.
SERVES 4
High-quality canned tomatoes will make a big difference in this sauce.
3 | tablespoons unsalted butter |
1 | small onion, chopped fine |
1 | ounce thinly sliced prosciutto, minced |
1 | bay leaf |
Salt and pepper | |
Pinch red pepper flakes | |
3 | garlic cloves, minced |
¹⁄ | cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, rinsed, patted dry, and chopped coarse |
2 | tablespoons tomato paste |
¹⁄ | cup plus 2 tablespoons dry white wine |
2 | cups plus 2 tablespoons crushed tomatoes (from one 28-ounce can) |
1 | pound penne, fusilli, or other short, tubular pasta |
¹⁄ | cup heavy cream |
¹⁄ | cup chopped fresh basil |
Grated Parmesan cheese |
1.
Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, prosciutto, bay leaf, ¹⁄
4
teaspoon salt, and pepper flakes and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened and lightly browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in garlic, increase heat to medium-high, and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add sun-dried tomatoes and tomato paste and cook, stirring constantly, until slightly darkened, 1 to 2 minutes. Add ¹⁄
4
cup wine and cook, stirring often, until liquid has evaporated, 1 to 2 minutes.
2.
Stir in 2 cups crushed tomatoes and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, partially cover, and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thickened, 25 to 30 minutes. Discard bay leaf.
3.
Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot. Add pasta and 1 tablespoon salt and cook, stirring often, until al dente. Reserve ¹⁄
2
cup cooking water, then drain pasta and return it to pot.
4.
Stir cream, remaining 2 tablespoons wine, and remaining 2 tablespoons crushed tomatoes into sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add sauce and basil to pasta and toss to combine. Add reserved cooking water as needed to adjust consistency. Serve immediately, passing Parmesan separately.