Chef Tony at Quanto Baso cooking school in Sorrento was fun and informative for our group cooking lesson, arranged in advance. In general he warned us against using garlic and onions together because they cover each other's tastes (what?!). He said 'you Americans' use too many ingredients in your red sauce, too much garlic... And we did notice even before this class that the marinara sauce there was light and very tasty.
On our Food Walking Tour on our first day in Naples, our tour guide Alex had us try marinara pizza (as well as fried pizza, buffalo mozzarella, gelato, limoncello, sfogliatella and another pastry ...). He said he knew we wouldn't believe it, but just pizza crust with just marinara is amazing. And it was! So it was exciting when chef Tony said we would be making some. Remarkably, he used canned tomatoes, which helped me believe we could reproduce it at home. At some of the places we asked, we were told the tomatoes or the onions they used can only be found in Italy, so we were convinced we would not be able to do the same here.
With Chef Tony, and our 'classmates' from Chile, NY and Australia, we joyfully made and consumed fresh made gnocchi in marinara, delicate dishes of eggplant parmigiana, and tiramisu covered with chocolate chips - chef Tony's favorite.
So here's the simple marinara that we enjoyed on our first night at home.
INGREDIENTS:
1 Tbsp EVOO per person
64 - 70 ounces San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes
1 clove of garlic ("not 6, not 8, but ONE), cut in pieces
2 basil leaves, torn
5 large pinches of salt
DIRECTIONS:
Heat pan on high. Add oil, garlic and basil.
Add the tomatoes and crush them inside the pot.
Simmer - that's it!
No comments:
Post a Comment