Quick Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes (Make it While the Pasta Cooks) _ Kenji's Cooking Show

Everyone .

It's Kenji .

We're gonna cook some pasta with , uh , fresh tomatoes , fresh tomatoes from the garden .

Um All right .

So I got my pasta water going and add some salt to it .

Not too much water .

I think you've heard me say this a million times but not too much water .

Just enough to cook the pasta without it sticking .

And you want um , a little bit less water so that we , uh , get it nice and starchy so that our pasta sauce emulsifies later .

All right .

So I got a couple of types of tomatoes here .

Um , oh , actually let me get my pasta in there .

Um , this is a full pound .

I probably don't need a full pound because there's , let's see , it goes about , let's go about , I don't know , 300 g , something like something like that .

I apologize .

Someone's vacuuming , vacuuming upstairs .

So you might hear some noise .

All right .

So that pasta is gonna cook in about seven minutes , which means that's the time that we get to cook our sauce .

So that's on , let me get some olive oil in there .

Extra virgin .

Ok .

So I got a couple of types of tomatoes here .

These are aromas and cherry tomatoes .

Um , I like using , I like using two types of tomatoes .

That's my , that's my motto does , it doesn't seem to matter what tomatoes you use , but today's tomatoes are better than tomorrow's tomatoes or something .

I don't know .

That's my , my tomato motto .

Um , now I'm using two different types of tomatoes just because that's what I had and that's what's fresh from the garden .

Um , If I was only gonna pick one type of tomato to use , um , actually either either cherry tomatoes or these Roma type tomatoes are actually very good for making sauce like this because um both of them are quite high in Pectin , you know .

Um So the Roma tomatoes are what are called paste type tomatoes and what , what sauce is generally made of as opposed to something like , you know , beef steak tomato , which is better for salads or for sandwiches .

Um , because they don't thicken up quite as nicely in a sauce .

Um But cherry tomatoes and Roma tomatoes , which everyone you can get riper .

Um , is what you wanna , what you wanna go with .

So I'm just having or quartering those up .

I got a couple of garlic cloves here .

Let's get that garlic going to flavor the oil a little , I just a little smash just very gently heating that oil .

We don't want it .

It's extra virgin olive oil .

So we don't want it to smoke or burn or anything .

Like that .

Ok .

Right .

And the garlic just gonna give it a , a rough slice .

People sometimes ask me if you need to remove that green germ in the scent of garlic .

Um , I've seen two different sources .

I completely trust , um , Cook's Illustrated and Serious Eats both places where I used to work , give completely opposing , uh , test results on that .

So , um , Cooks Illustrated says it doesn't matter .

Serious eats says it does both of them .

I trust to do their , you know , their testing and their work .

So I don't know , I , I generally don't bother .

Um especially for something like this where I'm gonna be cooking it because I don't think it makes much of a difference , but I haven't personally done a uh side by side test .

So I can't promise you .

Um some people say it makes your stuff turn bitter .

So something like where I was making like a pure ali for example , which is , you know , just garlic and oil emulsified or where I was making a sauce like Tom , I might uh take that germ , that green part out of the garlic , something that's super garlic forward .

Um All right .

Got some garlic going in there , gonna get a little bit of chili flakes .

You could use fresh chilies if you want as well .

And I'm gonna get these cherry tomatoes right in there .

OK ?

And then for these aromas , I'm gonna do what I like to do with larger fresh tomatoes like this .

I'm gonna split them in half .

Ok .

Then the large holes of a box grater , I'm gonna hold my hand flat here and basically just push it through side down , cut side down until all I'm left with is the skin .

Oh , hi , Alicia .

Can you hold on a moment ?

That's my daughter .

I think , wondering where her lunch is .

This technique I find is the easiest way to get the , um , you know , the flesh without the , without the skin , which is the part that , and it has a not great texture in the finished sauce .

All right , it's all good .

Uh So I've got these tomato leaves that I pulled off the branch .

Those also have lots of flavor .

So we're gonna toss those in there too .

Um We'll pull them out at the end and we're just gonna let this sort of simmer a little bit .

So this is gonna be a very sort of fresh tomato sauce .

Whoa , jets flying overhead .

We got all the noises today .

Very bright , fresh , fresh from the garden summer tomato sauce .

That's what we're looking for here .

My mom used to make a uh a dish .

I think you , I don't remember where she got the recipe from , but she used to make a dish with diced tomatoes , spaghetti and basil .

Um , but she always left the skins on the whole sort of beef steak tomatoes and , and she got them at the supermarket and the beef steak .

Tomatoes were not great .

Back then these days you can actually get quite decent , um , tomatoes even at the supermarket .

Um , but I did not like that dish growing up .

But I wonder if it was just my child like palate and if I would actually enjoy it now , or if my memory serves me right .

If it was just not very good tomatoes anyway .

More olive oil .

All right .

Now I got basil also from the garden .

It's a little bit overgrown .

You can see it's starting to get these little flowers , which is a sign that it's uh you know , bolting , gonna go to seed soon .

A little overgrown .

So the flavor is not like , you know , as delicate as very young , uh fresh , fresh young , tiny , tiny tender leaves of basil , but that's fine .

I don't really mind .

It's still gonna taste good .

All right , we'll take these stems , we'll throw a couple of them in here also just to add some more flavor to that sauce .

A little bit of salt , a little bit of pepper .

All right .

Let's see how our pasta is doing here .

We wanted something we're aiming for something just shy of al dente .

So , mm , it's a little chalky in the center .

I'm gonna cook it just until that chalkiness virtually disappears and then we'll finish it off in the sauce .

So you can see how nice and thick this is getting .

Um That's the pack uh sort of carbohydrate .

Glue that holds vegetable cells together .

That's the pectin in these tomatoes that's gonna thicken up the sauce .

It's the same thing that thickens up like a , a jam .

So , fruits that are high in , um , tend to make thicker jams and fruits that are lower impact and you have to add pectin separately to get the jam to thicken up properly .

See how it's going .

Hm .

Really nice and fresh .

All right .

So chop up our basil here .

It's a real rough chop in it .

One nice tray for that pasta .

Some people like throwing their pots at the ceiling .

She was cooked .

Um I do that purely to entertain my daughter , but it's not really gonna give you an indication of whether the boss is properly cooked or not .

All right .

So pasta straight in with whatever pasta water kind of clings to it .

And again that the starch in that pasta water is what's going to get this sauce that along with , well , with the pectin is what's gonna get the sauce to really emulsify .

Nicely cling .

Ok .

Yeah .

Out .

We're gonna finish this off right in here .

Oh , hold on one second .

All right .

Sorry , I'm sorry , baby .

Coming back home from the park .

All right .

So now what I'm gonna do is pick out the basal stems , tomato leaves , tomato leaves , by the way , if you want to feed tomatoes to your dogs , um , ripe red tomatoes are ok .

But do not let them eat um the green tomatoes or tomato stems because those are actually poisonous .

I'm just doing a little bit more possible water in here to get it a little creamier .

All right .

That looks great to me .

Ok .

Finish it off with that basil and off heat .

Now .

Parmesan and a little bit more fresh , extra virgin to one little , one little , couple more dashes of extra water .

Perfect .

Transfer to our serving bowl here .

Last little bit of basil .

Nice little bit of and the last little bit of extra virgin .

And there we go .

Pastor with cherry tomatoes .

No fresh tomatoes , cherry tomatoes , aroma , tomatoes basil .

A little bit of garlic , olive oil parmesan doesn't get too much bigger than that or too much simpler .

Even let's try a bite and then I'll call my family for lunch .

Hm .

So fresh and delicious .

Yes .

Travel here .

Trouble .

All right guys , girls , non binary pals .

I will see you next time .

Bye bye .