Tomato Tomatoe

garlic, tomato & anchovy pasta

Coming from an Italian family, I make pasta at least once a week. Italian cooking is centered around using simple, seasonal and good quality ingredients. When I’m in a pinch and don’t have many ingredients on hand, I tend to gravitate towards making “pantry pastas”. Pantry pastas don’t sound super exciting, but these types of pastas tend to be my favorite because they focus on using a few simple ingredients that pack a punch of flavor. Some classic pantry style pastas are aglio e olio and pasta puttanesca. I’ve recently added a new pantry pasta to my recipe collection and I fell in love with it after the first bite.

This pantry pasta uses lots of thinly sliced garlic, anchovies, lemon and grated tomatoes. Technically, it’s not fully a pantry pasta because it does use tomatoes and lemon but these are things that I usually have on hand. If you don’t have tomatoes you could definitely leave them out and the pasta would still taste delicious. This pasta is simple, vibrant and has a delicious umami flavour from the anchovies. The thing I love about pantry pastas is that you can use whatever you have on hand and make substitutions as needed. This pasta is fantastic to make in early September when tomato season is coming to a close. I usually have a few tomatoes on my counter that start to become past their prime. It’s a great way to use them up. If you don’t like anchovies, I think you should try them in this recipe because the anchovies dissolve in the sauce and what you’re left with is a salty, umami flavour that elevates the dish. Anchovies can be intimidating or may seem scary if you aren’t used to cooking with them, but trust me that you will begin to like them if you try them in this pasta.

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garlic, tomato & anchovy pasta

Ingredients

• 8 anchovy fillets
• 3-4 four large ripe tomatoes
• 6 cloves thinly sliced garlic
• zest from 1 lemon
• juice from 1 lemon
• 8-10 fresh basil leaves
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup pasta water
• Parmigiano Reggiano
• Extra virgin olive oil (for finishing)

Directions

1. Slice the garlic thin. Grate the tomatoes using a cheese grater.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Once at a boil, add the pasta and cook for two minutes less than what the package says.
3. In a large pan add the olive oil and garlic (heat off). Turn on the heat to low and let the garlic begin to cook. Add the anchovies and cook until they have dissolved, and the garlic has become fragrant. This should take 4-5 minutes. Add the tomato, lemon zest and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. While the pasta is cooking, remove 1 cup of pasta water.
4. Remove the pasta and add directly to the sauce. Add butter, 1/2 cup pasta water and torn basil. Coat the pasta in the sauce and cook for two minutes. If the pasta is too dry, add more pasta water. The sauce should have thickened up after the two minutes.
5. Off the heat add freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.