Erica De Mane

Recipe: Pomodoro Crudo with Capers, Almonds, Peperoncino, and Basil

I was recently talking with my friend Eddie, who’s just started doing some serious cooking, about good things to do with summer tomatoes. He wanted to make something impressive but relatively effortless, and pomodoro crudo, a raw tomato sauce, was the first thing I thought of. Not only is it easy, but it highlights summer tomatoes like nothing else. The secret, I believe, is in the chop, and in the bath of good olive oil I give them. A small dice (I don’t even bother to skin them) is essential not only for texture but, it seems to me, for flavor too. Sliced tomatoes can sometimes have a slight sea taste. (I have no idea why this would be. Any ideas out there?) A small dice, to my palate, produces a full blown sweetness that just bursts forth. And then, to expand the flavor even further, you want to let the tomato cubes sit in some really good olive oil, so the oil can mingle with the tomato essence to create a beautiful sauce for pasta or fish, or bruschetta, or any number of things. (For mozzarella? Definitely.)  And if you do toss it with pasta, like I did here, you’ll notice the heat from the pasta opens up all the flavors in the sauce even further, so maybe that’s the best way to enjoy its fragrance.

Tomatoes and olive oil are the starting point. If you want you can just add a little salt and leave it at that. Lovely. But since I always want to play with my food, I like to include a few flourishes. I make this sauce several times each summer and never the same way. I gave Eddie a few suggestions for add-ins, and I think he wound up including red onion, parsley, a little dill, pine nuts, and olives of some sort. Sounds good. I can never resist adding summer garlic, so that was a given for the version I made last night; then I threw in toasted almonds, good Sicilian salt-packed capers, a fresh, minced peperoncino, which added a subtle heat that didn’t overwhelm the goodness of the tomatoes. And for herbs I went with tarragon and basil. I used this on pasta, but these flavorings to me also suggest seafood. Had I had a few catfish fillets on hand, I would have sautéed them up crispy and spooned the sauce on them.

No matter what you decide to include in the personal touch department, a crucial step with pomodoro crudo is draining your tomatoes. Summer tomatoes, unless you work with the plum variety, give off tons of juice, and you don’t want all that liquid in your sauce. So after you chop the tomatoes, sit them in a colander or strainer, toss them with a little salt, and let the tomato water collect in a bowl. And keep that gorgeous, delicious water, especially if you’re planning to use the sauce to dress pasta. It’s the perfect thing if you find the finished pasta dish a bit dry. I wound up using about a quarter cup of it to loosen my sauce, and it had the added bonus of making the whole thing even more voluptuous.

If while trying to fashion a pomodoro crudo you feel a little stuck, creatively speaking, here are a few other flavor combinations I’ve had success with:

—A small dice of cantaloupe, basil, red onion, mozzarella
—Thyme, parsley, orange zest, black olives
—Fresh mint, pine nuts, grated mild pecorino, garlic
—Pistachios, green olives, scallions, fresh marjoram
—Peperoncino, diced anchovies, garlic, baby arugula
—A small dice of both soppressata and caciocavallo, basil, garlic
—Red shallot, tarragon, chervil, capers, lemon zest
—Canned Italian tuna, capers, green olives, garlic, parsley
—Chopped speck, a small amount of sage, parsley, scallions
—Walnuts, garlic, crumbled ricotta salata, basil

Pomodoro Crudo with Capers, Almonds, Peperoncino, and Basil

(Serves 6 as a first course)

5 round summer tomatoes, cut into small dice
Salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
About ⅓ cup salt-packed capers, soaked, rinsed, and drained
About ⅓ cup lightly toasted slivered almonds
2 fresh summer garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
1 fresh red peperoncino, minced
A big handful of basil leaves, lightly chopped
A few tarragon sprigs, the leaves lightly chopped
1 pound fusilli, penne, or ziti

Place the tomatoes in a colander or strainer over a bowl. Sprinkle them with a little salt, toss, and let them drain for about a half hour. If they are extremely juicy, you might let them go a little longer. Save the tomato water.

Place the drained tomatoes in a serving bowl. Add ⅓ cup of olive oil and all the other ingredients for the sauce, except for the basil and tarragon. Let sit for about 20 minutes, unrefrigerated, to develop flavor.

Cook the pasta al dente, and drain it well. Add it to the bowl. Add a little extra salt, and give it all a toss. Add the basil and tarragon, and toss gently. If the pasta seems dry, add a bit of the tomato water. Serve right away. To my taste, pasta with hot chilies tastes best without grated cheese, but that’s up to you.