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Spaghetti al Pomodoro

Name: Spaghetti al Pomodoro
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 400 g dried spaghetti; salt for the pasta water; 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil; 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced; 800 g canned whole San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand (ripe fresh plum tomatoes in season); 1/2 tsp chilli flakes, optional; 30 g fresh basil, leaves torn; salt and black pepper to taste; 40 g Pecorino Romano, finely grated (Parmesan is a common substitute)

San Marzano tomatoes and fresh basil, simmered into the simplest of all Italian pasta sauces.

Vegetarian Nut-Free

Bowl of spaghetti in tomato sauce topped with torn basil leaves — Best served the moment the pasta hits the sauce.

Prep10 min

Cook25 min

Total35 min

Servings 4 servings

DifficultyEasy

Tomatoes cooked down gently with garlic and olive oil until they collapse into a sauce, finished with torn basil and starchy pasta water -- no onion, no oregano, no cream. Just four real ingredients, which is the whole point of the dish.

Ingredients

400 g dried spaghetti
salt for the pasta water

For the sauce

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
800 g canned whole San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand (ripe fresh plum tomatoes in season)
1/2 tsp chilli flakes, optional
30 g fresh basil, leaves torn
salt and black pepper to taste

To finish

40 g Pecorino Romano, finely grated (Parmesan is a common substitute)

Instructions

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and salt it until it tastes seasoned.
Under-salted water is the most common reason a finished pasta tastes flat.
Combine the olive oil and sliced garlic in a wide pan while it's still cold, then set over medium-low heat and cook until the garlic turns fragrant and pale gold. 2 min
Starting the garlic in cold oil and heating them together is what keeps it from scorching bitter -- garlic dropped into oil that's already hot burns in seconds.
Add the tomatoes and chilli flakes, raise the heat, and cook until the tomatoes collapse and the sauce thickens. 18 min
Cook the spaghetti one minute short of the package time, reserving a mug of the cooking water before draining. 9 min
Toss the drained pasta into the sauce with a splash of the reserved water and stir hard until the sauce coats every strand. 1 min
The starch in the water is what emulsifies the sauce -- plain water will not do it.
Kill the heat, fold in the torn basil, taste for salt, and serve with the Pecorino.

Notes

San Marzano tomatoes, grown in volcanic soil near Naples, are the traditional choice -- sweeter and less acidic than most canned tomatoes, and worth seeking out even outside of Italy.
No onion and no oregano: those belong to other Italian tomato sauces, not this one. Pomodoro is deliberately just tomato, garlic, oil, and basil.
Keeps 3 days refrigerated; loosen with a splash of water when reheating.

Nutrition Facts

Per serving (1 bowl (about 350g)) -- estimated, not lab-tested.
Nutrient	Amount
Calories	520 kcal
Total Fat	15 g
Saturated Fat	4 g
Carbohydrates	78 g
Fiber	6 g
Sugar	9 g
Protein	18 g
Sodium	640 mg
Cholesterol	8 mg
Values are estimates based on standard ingredient data, not laboratory analysis.

Photo: Benreis, CC BY 3.0. Cropped to 3:2 and re-encoded as WebP/JPEG for web delivery.