I make a lot of tomato sauce. Generally, I use the same list of ingredients I’ve been using for years; onion, garlic, basil, tomato, olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar, and maybe a few other things. When it comes go fresh tomato sauce, I’m not an adventurist. I know what works and I stick with it. I do wonder, however, why I don’t mix things up here and there. This recipe gave me the opportunity to do just that.
The Recipe
The recipe I used called for bucatini, which is a thick spaghetti with a hole down the center of each piece. The recipe was called Bucatini ai Carciofi. I think I’ve eaten bucatini once in my life and it was pretty good. I actually haven’t seen it sold since. The ai carciofi of this dish translates from Italian into “with artichokes.” So basically, you can have anything …ai carciofi. I’ve seen spaghetti, rigatoni, fettuccini, risotto, tagliatelli, frittata, and lasagna. You can cook so many things and add artichoke, and I encourage you to do so. Artichokes are awesome.
I decided to cook with spaghetti because I happen to have a lot on hand at the moment. Spaghetti is only part of the story though. For the sauce, I added carrot, celery, onion, tomatoes, vegetable broth, and thyme. The carrot and celery were very noticeable and they’re what I was referring to above when I mentioned that I should “mix things up.” While I was putting this dish together, I said I would add these ingredients to my sauce from now on. Also, I used canned artichoke hearts because it isn’t realistic for me to stand at my counter processing real artichokes. If you’ve ever seen one of those things, you most likely understand. I managed to get a semi-brown on the canned ones though, so that was good.
Overall, I enjoyed this dish a lot. It’s simple, tasty, and has some heft to it.
I’d like to thank Carlo Bernasconi and Christian Teubner for this recipe. I pulled it from their fabulous Complete Italian Cookbook.
Ingredients
Serves: 4
1 Pound Dried Spaghetti
1 Tablespoon Salt
For the Artichokes
(2) 12-Ounce Cans of Artichoke Hearts
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
For the Sauce
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Onion, Chopped
1 Garlic Clove, Minced
(1) 32-Ounce Can of Diced Tomatoes
1 Cup Carrot, Diced
1 Cup Celery, Diced
1/2 Cup Vegetable Broth
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Sugar
Make the Sauce
Add the olive oil, onion, and garlic to a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Cook for a few minutes until the onions begin to brown. At this point, add the carrot and celery and continue to cook until these ingredients become soft. This will take at least 10 minutes. Next, add in the tomatoes, vegetable broth, salt, pepper, and sugar and continue to simmer for at least 10 more minutes.
Cook the Artichoke
Warm a large skillet over medium heat on your stovetop. Add the two tablespoons of olive oil, the lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and the artichokes. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until you get somewhat of a brown on each side of each vegetable.
Then, add the tomato sauce to the skillet and mix all the ingredients together. You can turn off the heat at this point.
Cook the Pasta
Fill a large pot about 3/4 the way with water and add the one tablespoon of salt. Bring the water to a boil over high heat. When boiling, add the spaghetti and cook for about 10 minutes or until al dente. When finished, pour the contents of the pot through a colander.
Combine, Plate, & Serve
To finish up, toss the spaghetti with the sauce, plate, and serve. Enjoy!
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