Salsa cruda for peak tomatoes
Grated ripe tomato, garlic and basil. The less you do to it, the better it is.
At a Glance
Story
Pasta alla crudaiola is a southern Italian idea, at home in Puglia, where the height of summer means you do not dare cook a good tomato, you just grate it raw and dress it. Grating on the big holes of a box grater is the trick, the flesh comes away as a pulp and the skin stays flat in your hand. Salt it only at the end, because salt pulls water out of tomato and a sauce salted early turns thin and weepy.
Ingredients
- 3 ripe tomatoeshalved and grated (skins left behind in your hand)
- 1 clove garlicgrated
- 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp basiltorn
- flaky saltadd just before serving
- black pepper
Method
The whole recipe is a ripe tomato and the restraint to leave it nearly alone. In August it is the best thing you can make in ten minutes. In February, do not bother.
- Halve the tomatoes across the middle and grate the cut side on the large holes of a box grater set over a bowl, until only the flat skin is left in your hand. Discard the skins.
- Grate in the garlic, add the olive oil and the torn basil, and stir. That is the sauce. Do not add the salt yet.
- Season with flaky salt and black pepper only in the last moment before it goes to the table. Toss it through hot pasta, spoon it over grilled bread, fish or chicken, or eat it with a spoon over the sink, which is what will actually happen.
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