Sometimes when I cook I feel like a sorceress. Like when I
beat filmy egg whites until they become frothy, thick, and white or when I
slowly cook yellow onions down to a caramelized, sweet tangle. I am in awe at
how ingredients transform almost as if by magic.—
I felt this way last night when I made a raw tomato sauce
for pasta. This is a dish only to be attempted when you have the sweetest,
ripest, most perfect tomatoes… meaning in August and September after you’ve
shopped at the farmer’s market. While I brought a big pot of water to a boil, I
chopped a handful of tomatoes: two medium sized heirloom tomatoes, a Roma, and
about two dozen cherry tomatoes. I put the tomatoes in a large bowl and added
two chopped scallions, one clove of finely chopped garlic, about a
tablespoonful of olive oil, salt and pepper. Basically, I made a tomato salad.
I gently stirred the ingredients together and let them sit while the water came
to a boil and I cooked some fusilli.
I drained the pasta and checked my tomatoes. Lo and behold
my salad became a salad…with a sauce at the bottom. Thanks to the salt and the
sitting the tomatoes released their juices leaving a rich, olive oil-y liquid
at the bottom of the bowl. I tasted the liquid and added a touch more salt and
pepper. Then I tossed in the pasta and dished it up.
On the plate, the dish looked like pasta with chopped
tomatoes, but each piece of pasta was coated in the yummy tomato liquid. To
finish the dish I topped it with more ground pepper, a final drizzle of olive
oil, chopped fresh basil, and some Parmesan cheese. And it was delicious –
fresh and flavorful.
I don’t have a recipe for this sauce. I didn’t plan to write
about it. But my husband convinced me. He couldn’t believe that a sauce this
sauce-y wasn’t cooked, and he even told my Italian mother-in-law about it. So, I figured I should share.
If you prepare the dish follow the template above. Just make
sure your tomatoes are divine and you let them sit for about a half hour. It
couldn’t be an easier summer meal, and as fall edges ever closer it’s nice to
hold onto the season just a bit longer.
— Jenna Helwig, Rosaberry
