For pasta perfection, top with vine-ripened tomatoes
Posted by Kim Davaz • 08/11/10 • 12:34am
Carl Davaz
Pasta With Four Cheeses and Tomato Basil Sauce is particularly tasty and beautiful when made with a colorful combination of heirloom tomatoes.
When you can get great tomatoes, they don’t need much to improve on their flavor: a little salt, a little pepper, maybe a drizzle of olive oil, not to mention in a BLT with avocado.
A cheesy pasta topped with uncooked tomato sauce is an easy main or side dish.
Adapted from a Bon Appétit magazine too long ago to remember, this has been a family favorite from the first try.
When my younger daughter was in kindergarten and was asked (as they all were) to name her favorite food, she said, quite rapturously, “Pasta With Four Cheeses and Tomato Basil Sauce!”
This dish is good with OK tomatoes, but it sings when you use the most gorgeous ripened-on-the-vine tomatoes you can get.
It is particularly tasty and beautiful when made with a rainbow combination of heirloom tomatoes.
To cut the basil in a chiffonade, stack the leaves, roll them into a cigar and slice thinly to make shreds.
Roughly chopping the shreds allows them to disperse more evenly in the sauce.
The dish is quite good with any combination of the cheeses, in case you can’t round up all four. (It’s even good over plain pasta.)
If there are any leftovers, stir well and bake for a delicious take on macaroni and cheese.
Pasta With Four Cheeses and Tomato Basil Sauce
- 2¾ pounds tomatoes, seeded and roughly chopped
- ½ cup fresh basil, cut in a chiffonade (or 1½ tablespoons dried basil)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large cloves garlic, minced
- 1 dash red pepper flakes
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Mix and let stand at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours. I put this in a glass jar with a lid and shake it occasionally.
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup grated fontina cheese
- ½ cup grated mozarella cheese
- Nutmeg and pepper, to taste (about 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg and a few grindings of pepper)
Mix in a serving bowl. Let stand at room temperature while cooking pasta.
1 pound pasta (I like farfalle, or bows, but fusilli, or twists, are good, too), whole grain if you can get away with it
Cook pasta and drain, reserving some of the cooking water. Thin cheese mixture with about 3 tablespoons of the cooking water. Put pasta on top of cheese mixture. Let sit a minute, then mix thoroughly. Top with tomato sauce.
Kim Davaz of Eugene writes the biweekly Eating In column.
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