Good morning, Darling!
A couple of weeks ago when I last sent out a newsletter with a orecchiette and caramelised onion sauce, quite a few of you messaged me and said that the simplicity of that recipe made them try it out straight away. I am targeting as successful results with this week’s sauce.
Smoky tomato and burrata recipe is a result of yet another kitchen raid. Eureka. Smoky olive oil! I was as happy as I would have won a lottery. Sometimes, that is how it feels though, when a recipe comes to you. Anyway, all I needed was that bottle of good passata that I knew I had and a burrata to cut through the acidic tomato with some creaminess.
SMOKY TOMATO SAUCE WITH BURRATA
2 portions
What makes a great tomato sauce? Patience (and butter). One needs to let the sauce be, let it cook for as long as it becomes deliciously rich both in texture and taste.
Crushed tomatoes, that are quintessentially important for this recipe, come in many guises, and are real boon for making an impressive tomato sauce, because they take all the hard work out of peeling, seeding and chopping. Passata is made of plum tomatoes that have been mechanically peeled and crushed, then sieved to remove the seeds.
Seeds are what make the tomatoes more acidic, and therefore you would need to balance it with salt and something sweet; like sugar, honey or maple syrup (my go to). When I have more time, I add finely chopped carrot to the sauce to sweeten the dish as naturally as possible. It will disintegrate in the sauce adding sweetness to it, but leaving no hint of a carrot flavour.
Someone said lately at the workshop that there had been tests going on in TikTok teaching how just a tiny pinch of bicarbonate would balance the acidity of tomato sauce! I haven’t tested it myself just yet, but digging some more information on that topic, reveals that a tiniest amount of baking soda will indeed help to alleviate acidity. Maybe start with a small bowl of sauce as a tester with that rather than dashing the baking soda in the whole thing.
TIME
5 minutes prep
30 min cooking time
MISE EN PLACE chopping board and a damp cloth or kitchen paper to place under it, kitchen knife, spatula, heavy-bottomed pot or a pan for a sauce, tongues, wooden spoon
INGREDIENTS
400 g passata
5 g fresh garlic
5 g fresh basil
20 g olive oil
20 g smoked olive oil
15 g butter
50 g burrata
Salt
Pepper
MAKING IT
Chop garlic finely, add it to the cold pan with smoky olive oil and a couple of sprigs of fresh basil.
Add olive oil, garlic and basil on the cold pan. Heat up slowly, and cook just very gently without frying garlic. That is to avoid the bitter taste that the frying would give it to the sauce.
Add passata, let it cook down very slowly, stirring every now and then with a wooden spoon.
Season the sauce at the very end with smoky olive oil, salt, pepper and a bit of maple syrup if needed. Take out the basil sprigs. Melt in the butter at the very end, when the sauce is off the heat.
Layer the dish with fresh fileja pasta, tomato sauce, fresh basil leaves, burrata and smoked olive oil.
FILEJA
PASTA OF THE WEEK
Like many pasta shapes from Southern Italy, so is fileja made with durum wheat and water. This time I used double milled durum wheat which is often found in shops under the name of semolina.
This Calabria native shape is classically served in a tomato-based sauce which can be flavoured with spicy soft sausage that is also from the region, known as nduja.
Fresh pasta that has been made with semolina and water is known as pasta bianca since there are no eggs in the dough. Therefore, is makes a great vegan option too.