Raw Tomato Sauce

[Steve Plotnicki]

Don't blanch the tomatoes if you want what we are referring to as a "raw sauce." Blanching and peeling are good if you want a more traditional "cooked sauce." A different take on this sauce in later days (I assume you will have bushels of tomatoes for the next few weeks) is to char the tomatoes over an open flame prior to dicing. That will give your still raw sauce a nice smokey flavor. Just remember that a raw sauce is really infused olive oil that has to coat the pasta. The tomatoes etc. gives it more taste and texture. But you have to get the essence of the tomato and herbs into the oil.

[Varmint]

One important thing to do is to use very warm plates, as this dish can cool down quite a bit when you're mixing with the tomatoes.

[FoodMan]

kalamata olives are a definite in my raw tomato sauce as well as basil and oregano. I do not blanch or remove the seeds from the tomatoes. Let us know how it turned out.

FM

[Shermar]

No don't seed them. Cut the small ones(grape sized) in half. Start with a quarter cup of olive oil, use more if it seems too dry. Trow some freshly torn basil, some oregano and some thyme in there too. Red pepper flakes for arrabiata would work as well.

[Rachel Perlow]

I also coincidentally noticed I had a Lidia's Italian Table episode about pasta on my DVR, so I watched it and she did a raw tomato sauce with rotelle. Here's what I did:

1) Quartered cherry (2-3 varieties) and grape tomatoes, removing only the core if it looked hard, leaving seeds; diced and removed seeds from 3 green zebras (excellent heirloom variety, I highly recommend them) and a few San Marzano (that's what the variety is called, even though they weren't grown on the slope of a mountain). The San Marzano's are very pasty, so they are probably only good for sauce. I saved most of them for a cooked sauce. About 3 cups of tomatoes.

2) Added several grinds of kosher salt and about 1/4 cup of Bettini EVOO (purchased from Jim Dixon), stirred.

3) Minced 1 clove of garlic, placed it into a pyrex measuring cup, heated about 1/4 EVOO (I would have used a plainer oil, but I only had peanut and that EVOO in the house) and poured it onto the garlic. Allowed to sit for several minutes until cool.

4) Put the pot of water to boil. Grated parmesean cheese and tore up some fresh basil, oregano, mint and 1 sage leaf (could have used one or two more, didn't taste the sage at all). Strained the garlic out of the oil and added it and the herbs to the sauce (squeezed through the sauce with my hand a little). Reserve garlic flavored oil in the fridge for another use.

5) Cook pasta (farfalle/bowties). Meanwhile, put serving bowl in sink with colander set inside. Strain pasta, lift off colander, reserve some of the cooking water. Dump out the rest of the hot water. Mix tomatoes and pasta in the hot bowl with a little cooking water and mix in the cheese.

6) We both said, "Oh Wow is this good!"

Nothing can beat ripe home-grown tomatoes.

[Adam Balic]

Does it have to be a pasta sauce. You could make a panzanella with older bread or farro if you have it.

[Fat Guy]

Olives are great in these crudo sauces, but Kalamata olives? I don't know about that. Kalamatas are kind of the lowest common denominator olives. What you want are those little black Ligurian olives (same variety as Nicoise).

[johnjohn]

I make this same dish, but add a large spoonful of ricotta cheese just before I toss the tomatoes and pasta (I like Rigatoni or Penne). It gives it a nice creaminess. One of my favorite late summer meals.

johnjohn

[Fat Guy]

Yes!

[Brad S]

Olives are great in these crudo sauces, but Kalamata olives? I don't know about that. Kalamatas are kind of the lowest common denominator olives. What you want are those little black Ligurian olives (same variety as Nicoise).

I also am not a big fan of kalamata olives,but if I have them at home I take them out of thier brine and rinse them in cold water then lay them on a towel and pat dry. Then I put them in a bowl and drizzle them with a nice fruity Evoo the rind of an orange (cut into strips and pith removed) and a couple cloves of slivered garlic.

Then I put everything in a clean ball jar (mason) and pop them in the fridge.

It's a great little way to doctor up olives that are not the greatest.

[Rachel Perlow]

Olives! Blech! Ptooey! Yuck. Where's that eleven foot poll thread when I need it?

[Brad S]

Olives! Blech! Ptooey! Yuck. Where's that eleven foot poll thread when I need it?

So by that statement I should assume you don't particulary enjoy olives?

Not even a little bit?

[Rachel Perlow]

Nope. I will admit to trying them again recently. This is because of an eGullet inspired resolution to sample disliked foods occasionally on the theory that eventually I will learn to appreciate or even like them. This is the same resolution that led me to sample sweetbreads twice in the past year, they're still in the negative column.

Took me a long time to learn to appreciate olive oil too.

[mixmaster b]

I am jealous of these beautiful sounding tomatoes! I have great success with herbs in containers on my porch, but tomatoes seem to need to be in the earth. Thank god for the farmer's market!

On the sauce, I like to reserve some of the pasta water (1/4-1/2c) and add it to the whole concoction during the tossing. For me the amount of oil needed to get a raw sauce liquidy enough to coat the pasta seems too much, but I do like a nice juicy dish, and the pasta water seems to work perfectly. Depends how much liquid is in the tomatoes, though.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Rachel - Have you tried sweetbreads in an Argentinian Parrillada restaurant? They grill them, and they make them crispy so the mushiness gets cooked out of them yet they aren't dry. La Lampeira on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights can make some good ones as can La Cabana on Roosevelt Avenue off of Junction Blvd. Then if you pick up the taste for them cispy and sort of dry(ish) and salty, you can work your way up to a mushier texture.

[Peter B Wolf]

I had forgotten about a piece of Bulgarian Feta, for over three months, which was only lightly wrapped in parchment. It was therefor not airtight and dried out so much that I was able to grate it on the large hole side of a four-sided grater. That over the 'Fresh Tomato Sauce' was just delightful.

[shugga]

Bumping this one up for smaratron.

[Jaymes]

I have a fabulous recipe for Puttanesca that you make by chopping fresh tomatoes, squishing olives, smashing garlic, squeezing anchovy paste, slicing basil, tossing well in EVOO, placing in a glass bowl with glass lid, setting outside in sun for about five or six hours.

Then you pour it over pasta and grate P Reg overall.

Wonderful!

[Sandra Levine]

So sorry this thread turned up when I was away. This is one of my favorite sauces and I've posted about it elsewhere. For the record, I always remove the seeds, I always use basil, some in the maceratiohn, some added at the end. I sometimes use small cubes of mozzarella, I sometimes use slivered calamata or nicoise olives. I always use the best olive oil I have in the house and macerate the seeded tomatoes for a couple of house before adding to the pasta.