Pasta: how to create the perfect penne and fresh tomato sauce

Penne with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Spaghetti or any pasta shape with sugo di pomodoro, a fresh tomato sauce, is another classic Italian dish that's both easy to make and delicious. In my family, it’s one of the sauces I added to our regular menu, and we all loved it: it's quick to prepare, easy to eat and digest, and most importantly, it's so tasty! I find this sauce the most convenient to assign to any family member to prepare. Take note, mothers, and free up your valuable time!

One last suggestion: don't underestimate this sauce just because it's simple to prepare, very affordable, and not time-consuming. It will prove incredibly useful throughout your life in countless other recipes, trust me.

Let's begin by making penne with fresh tomato sauce.

Ingredients serves 4

• Tomato passata, 800 g

• Garlic, 1-2Cloves

• Basil leaves, 7-8

• Nutmeg freshly grated, 0.5 tsp

• Extra virgin olive oil (EVO), 4-5 tbsp

• Pasta (any shape of your choice), 400g

• Parmesan, at your taste

• Salt and pepper

Let's jump to the method

1. Prepare all ingredients.

2. In a medium size pan, warm up the olive oil and add the crushed garlic.

3. Light fry it until golden, not burned.

4. Add the tomato passata and stir.

5. Add 1/2 tsp sugar or the quantity at your taste to get rid of the tomato bitterness (without overdoing: it does not need to be sweet as a dessert!).

6. Add 1/2 glass of water and stir.

7. Add 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg and the basil leaves. Add a pinch of salt and pepper.

8. Bring the sauce to a boil, then low down the heat and simmer for 15/20 minutes. Stir from time to time, making sure the heat is not too high. If you think it’s drying out, you can add some water.

9. Get ready a large pot of water for 800 g of pasta of your choice and bring to a boil. Ideally, for every 100 g of pasta you should use 1 litre of water and 10 g of salt for each litre.

10. Just after boiling, add the salt and then the pasta, following the cooking time instructions written in the package. Don’t forget that the best pasta, should be “a lenta essicazione”, meaning slow drying when produced and it should be written in the package.

11. Once ready, transfer the pasta into a capacious serving bowl, add the sauce and a generous amount of parmesan cheese.

12. Serve your penne and fresh tomato sauce (or any other pasta shape) and…BUON APPETITO!

Penne with fresh tomato sauce