Parsley Sauce with Fresh Ripe Tomatoes
This recipe actually gives you two flavorful sauces, to use as a dressing for pasta or to give a fresh accent to all sorts of dishes, from steamed vegetables to roasted meats. The basic sauce is a simple, loose parsley pesto, quite good and easily whipped up any time of year. In summer, I cut ripe, sweet tomatoes into small pieces and mix them into the pesto. The juices and flesh of the tomatoes merge with the parsley sauce, creating a new dressing with multiple dimensions of flavor and texture.
Recipe information
Yield
makes enough parsley sauce (with or without tomatoes) for a pound of maccheroni alla Chitarra or other pasta
Ingredients
TO DRESS THE PASTA
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
Preparation
Step 1
To make the basic sauce: Put the parsley leaves, garlic, peperoncino, and 1 teaspoon salt in the food-processor bowl. Pulse several times to chop the leaves coarsely, then, with the machine running, pour in all the olive oil in a steady stream. Stop and scrape down the sides of the work bowl, and process to a fine-textured, very loose pesto. Use this parsley sauce right away to dress pasta or as a condiment. To store, scrape the sauce into a small container, cover the top surface with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for a day (or freeze for later use; defrost at room temperature).
Step 2
For parsley sauce with tomatoes: Prepare the tomatoes before processing the basic sauce. For full-sized round tomatoes, cut out the cores, slice the tomatoes in half, and squeeze out the seeds, then cut the flesh into 1-inch chunks. For cherry tomatoes, simply slice them in half. Put all the cut tomato pieces in a deep bowl, and toss with 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Let the tomatoes sit for a few minutes to release their juices while you process the parsley sauce, as detailed above. Pour the freshly made parsley sauce over the cut tomatoes, and toss together well. Use within an hour or two. If it waits longer the freshness and bright color of the parsley vanishes.
Step 3
To dress the pasta with either the basic parsley sauce or the parsley-tomato sauce: Put the sauce in a bowl big enough for tossing. Cook the pasta until al dente—take some of the boiling pasta water to loosen the parsley sauce only if it seems too dense to toss. When the maccheroni (page 236 ) is done, drain and drop it into the bowl with the sauce. Toss well, then sprinkle over it a cup or so of grated cheese, and toss again. Serve immediately in warm bowls, with more cheese at the table.
