Tomato-Butter Pasta

In Italy we make versions of this pretty much every day in summer, with either olive oil (south) or butter (north), minus the raw garlic which Italians find indigestible. Easier to start heating the sauce in a pan, then transfer the under-cooked pasta with a slotted spoon, incorporating some water--no colander needed. Here leftover pasta is never saved much less eaten cold; it goes right to the dog.

It seems the author (and many readers) are conflating "al dente" with "under-cooked." Here in Italy, al dente is ready to eat. If you cook the pasta al dente and then cook it 2-3 minutes longer, it will be mush. The recipe should have said to cook the pasta 2-3 minutes less than al dente.

To avoid over-cooking the pasta: instead of cooking it al dente and then adding it back to the pot, cook the pasta until it’s done, reserving some of the cooking water. Drain the pasta and immediately transfer it to a big bowl. Add the sauce, the Parmesan cheese, and a little of the reserved pasta water. Stir vigorously, using a whisking motion. Add more cheese and more water if needed, and stir again. The sauce forms beautifully in less than 30 seconds and the pasta will be perfect.

The flavor and texture of the sauce is delicious, but since we cooked our pasta al dente, it got pretty mushy after we returned it to the pot with the sauce to cook. Next time I’ll undercook it before adding it back with the sauce.

I have some tips to make prep easier and safer. 1. If f you don't already have one, invest in a Kevlar glove, which will keep skin and fingernails out of your food. Makes using a mando safer, too. 2. Freeze the butter before grating and use either the original wrapper or some parchment paper to hold it. 3. I find trying to grate garlic on a box grater too fiddly, so I used a garlic press and a lot more than 1 clove of garlic. I also added some Penzey's Tuscan Sunset.

Made this tonight with heirloom tomatoes from the garden. I can’t say enough about how delicious this is! I undercooked the pasta and added a touch more pasta water to the pan with the tomatoes and butter, then cooked on medium high for a couple of extra minutes. The sauce thickened up nicely and the pasta was so flavorful! Such a simple recipe and so so good!

Lovely! Pro tip - wear an apron while prepping and eating this dish. Or at least not a white t-shirt.

Made this tonight - yellow heirloom tomatoes Pulsed in processor with some salt and garlic - a little chunky Used pappardelle cooked 2 minutes instead of 3 Drained , all put back in pot with pats of butter, pepper, aleppo pepper and torn fresh basil A summer delight!

Another Ali Slagle winner. I wouldn’t change a thing. Can’t wait to make it again.

I made this as instructed and didn’t have any issue with mushy pasta. Also added some diced sautéed eggplant w/ smoked paprika at the end for a little more depth of flavor and topped with toasted breadcrumbs for added texture and a little lemon zest for brightness. It was delicious and light. A perfect summer pasta dish

Max has it right. The pasta should be two or three minutes shy of al dente. That way, once poured into the sauce it continues cooking and absorbing all the good flavor of the sauce until it's ready. And very tasty. That doesn't happen if you just pour sauce over pasta already in a dish.

But I do agree with Julia Child that you don’t refrigerate tomato because it loses so much flavor. Just grate it while the pasta cooks.

Really good and easy as written, and made me wonder if an August bounty of tomatoes could make a soup that would freeze. I could have sipped that sauce without the pasta. What more would the soup need than great grated tomatoes, butter, garlic and salt?

Made as directed and cooked the pasta one minute less than al dente. I didn't have enough tomatoes maybe, so there wasn't a lot of sauce but it was delicious nonetheless. Easy weeknight recipe. Not sure why we're grating up the tomatoes; will try to see if I can achieve the same result with crushed san marzano canned tomatoes.

Yum! Made this today with gluten-free pasta. I did make the tomato-butter-garlic sauce ahead and refrigerated it till it was time to cook the pasta. I agree with Ali - generously salting the tomatoes make the tomatoes taste like smelling a rose here (love the analogy haha). I also added three garlic cloves because who doesn't love garlic! It def is a non-standard pasta recipe and not sure if everyone is gonna enjoy the subtle flavors but it was a winner for this mom + kids (not dad, sadly)