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Thursday, August 7, 2008

Tasty Pasta Carbo Recipe

I have been really enjoying cooking and thought maybe you might want a recipe now and again. This one's tried and true! It would be perfect before a race..maybe 2 nights before.

Pasta with tomato, basil, garlic and anchovies: In this recipe, you don't actually taste the anchovies..they just add a rich base flavor to the sauce.

Ingredients:
1 large and 1 small can of whole peeled tomatoes, preferably good Italian ones
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped in large chunks
1/2 a Valencia or sweet onion, chopped medium fine
1 small jar or can (about 1 ounce) anchovies
4-5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup (or more to taste) fresh basil, ripped into small pieces
salt and pepper to taste
red pepper flakes to taste
Good parmegiano cheese
Whole wheat (or favorite)pasta

In a medium saucepan, saute olive oil, add garlic and onion. When they start to turn shiny, add anchovies. Anchovies with melt into the oil; when they do, add basil and cook for about a minute, add tomatoes, squooshing them one at a time with hands(preferably clean hands), and adding the juice. Allow the sauce to boil and then turn it down to simmer for at least an hour, or until it cooks down . Add salt and pepper and red pepper flakes to taste while cooking.

Cook your pasta of choice until al dente. Drain and put back into sauce pan. Add the sauce and mix. Allow pasta to finish cooking in the sauce for about 5 minutes to permeate the pasta with the sauce.

Serve with extra fresh basil and freshly shaved parmegiano.

Report back to me.

4 comments:

Avery said...

That sounds yummy! I am going to have to try that out the next time I make some pasta. Definitely need to buy some anchovies though.

canoodler said...

If you can find Al Dente (brand) Fettuccine, it is the perfect pasta for carbo-loading. And,their whole wheat pasta is the best on the market. Cooks in just 3 minutes!

Anonymous said...

Gabby, I made your sauce to go with my homemade gnocchi on the weekend. It was delicious! So I thought I might share the gnocchi recipe, which comes from my Italian friend, Nadia, with you and your readers:

She recommends buying good organic potatoes. You need about about one and a half kilos. Boil, peel and mash. (Or peel, boil and mash). Then you need to incorporate approximately 500g of plain flour, and a pinch of salt. Nadia says that if the potatoes 'ask' for more flour, to feed it to them. The dough shouldn't be too moist and shouldn't stick too much to your hands. Then it's just a matter of rolling into thin sausage shaped rolls, cutting into small pieces and shaping by rolling along the back of a fork or simply pinching between your fingers.

Cook in boiling water until they rise to the surface and remove, mix through with your delicious pasta sauce and some small pieces of pecorino in a baking dish, top with a mixture of bread crumbs, parmesan and pine nuts and bake until golden.

Yum!

chicopea said...

Thanks, I loved this recipe! :)