Spaghetti with Roasted Heirloom Tomatoes
By Charlie Burke
After a late start, our heirloom tomatoes are producing at least twenty pounds a day. We sell thirty pounds a week to a restaurant and some at our stand, but have plenty left for ourselves, friends and for sauce which is frozen for winter use.
Heirloom tomatoes have more flavor than paste varieties but contain much more water which must be evaporated when making sauce. For this reason, I use a very wide sauté pan with three inch vertical sides. Its large surface area rapidly concentrates the sauce from four or five pounds of tomatoes resulting in a lighter sauce than those boiled for longer times.
This Spaghetti with Roasted Heirloom Tomatoes recipe uses roasting to concentrate the different flavors of a mix of our tomatoes. Although they roast for a couple of hours, the hands-on time of preparation is quite short, and it takes little additional effort to make enough for several meals. Freezing it enables peak of season tomatoes to be enjoyed on the coldest winter day.
Preparation for roasting involves squeezing out the seeds and jelly like pulp surrounding them which, when strained, yield tomato water which has intense flavor. It is great as juice or added to soups and stocks, but here I decided to reduce it to intensify its flavor and to toss the spaghetti in it, providing a second layer of taste to complement the roasted sauce. Because of this, it is important to follow the Italian custom of minimally saucing the pasta which shares equal billing with the “condiments”.
Four to six servings:
1 pound spaghetti, preferably imported and made from 100% Durhamwheat
5 pounds best quality local tomatoes, a mix of heirlooms if available
6 – 8 whole cloves of garlic, peeled
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher or sea salt and ground pepper
¾ cup basil, torn or chopped immediately before using
Preheat oven to 325 degrees on bake or convection bake. Core, and then slice tomatoes in half crosswise, not from top to bottom. Place a strainer over a bowl and squeeze seeds and loose pulp into strainer. Set aside to continue draining.
Place tomatoes, cut side up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or foil. Place garlic cloves individually into tomatoes (there will be fewer garlic cloves than tomato halves). Sprinkle tomatoes with sea salt and a few grinds of pepper, and then drizzle generously with olive oil. Place into the oven and cook for approximately 2 hours. Times will vary, depending on the oven and size of tomatoes. They are done when there is some caramelization and the halves have partially collapsed. The tomatoes should still be somewhat moist.
While tomatoes cook, press juice from seeds and pulp through the strainer with the back of a wooden spoon. Place juice into a small sauce pan and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until reduced by half. It will change from red to a more orange color which will nicely color the pasta. Taste and add a small amount of salt if needed; if the taste is particularly sharp or acidic, whisk in an additional 1 – 2 tablespoons of olive oil to balance, as would be done with a salad dressing.
Place tomatoes and any juice on the parchment paper into a food processor and pulse several times. The sauce should have intact pieces of tomato when done. Taste, adding salt, pepper or additional oil to taste.
Boil pasta in a large volume of salted water until just done (start tasting at 6 minutes). Strain and return to pot, stirring in the reduced tomato juice. Serve on warmed plates, topping with ¼ - ½ cup of the sauce, sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and the chopped basil. Served with a green salad, good crusty bread and a Chianti Classico, it is typical of meals served in traditional trattorias in Italy.
This sauce is the third tomato pasta sauce written for our recipe column and is the most intense of the three - at the opposite end of the spectrum from the light, uncooked fresh tomato, garlic and basil sauce. The easy cooked sauce, also in our archives, is somewhere in between and is closest to what is thought of as “spaghetti sauce”, but the intensity of roasted tomatoes in this version is not to be missed.