In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Lotaresco
Just a note,
but I feel the same everytime in Italy. It is simply the quality of the ingredients/produce - very often just the quality of the olive oil, to say nothing of all the other salad and root vegetables
Sandra
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Sandra,
Of course it's difficult to get authentic ingredients in the UK, but it is possible, he said, coughing heavily and pointing at the signature to his posts :)
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
That's the wya I would cook them:
1 or 2 cans of napolina chopped tomatoes ( I find they r the best in the uk, even better if u can find the cherry tomatoes)
" cloves of garlic
salt
sugar
olive oil
mozzarella if you wish
rucola
Take a frying pan, put some olive oil , heat it, add the sliced garlic and fry for a few minutes. Add the tomato, salt and a pich of sugar (it takes away the acidity from the sauce). Cook for 5 minutes on a very high flame, you nedd the tomato to get the taste of garlic and oil, but to saty quite fresh.
Cook the spagetti in the ean time. Drain them al dente and through them in the pan with the sauce . Mix on a very high flame, so that the past can mix really well with the tomato. add chopped mzzarella if you like it, and then at the very last minute, the fresh rucola!
You can make it with fresh tomatoes too, just be careful in not cooking them too long if not they'll loose the fresheness..
Paola
I think it would be spaghetti nonna, the problem is everyone has two nonnas and even they (or especially they) can't agree on a recipe. The headache with trying to prepare any Italian dish in the British Isles is the poor quality of ingredients. You need good olive oil, pasta, tomatoes and rocket and all of those ingredients need the heat of the sun to achieve full flavour. Here in northern europe the tomatoes will be Dutch hydroponic water bags (most likely) or domestic varieties from the garden which have flavour but still not the intensity of Italian sun-ripened tomatoes. I'm constantly astounded how much my cooking improves when I'm in Italy compared to the UK. Only difference is the ingredients.
I take it from your description that this is a recipe using uncooked tomato? The spaghetti nonna I'm familiar with has a cooked tomato sauce with fresh rocket added at the last minute.