Pasta la vista baby

Ok, first of all I'd better apologize for having eaten a modicum of pasta before I realized I should take a picture!  I was hungry!

I am a huge fan of pasta and usually eat it once or twice a week.  I have spent some time with Italians, and when I was able to get a word in edge-ways I found out some interesting things about pasta.  

The Romans invented pasta (well, the Chinese might disagree, but let's roll with the Romans for a moment) as a means of food preservation.  The ability to have a dried resource available during a time when refrigeration did not exist was a godsend.  Many people think that freshly made pasta is superior to dried pasta.  This is just not case.  Both have their time and place and are used for specific instances.

The Italians never, ever add olive oil to their boiling water when making pasta.  Think about the logic of this.  You pour the oil into the water and then it floats on the surface of the water, never actually coming into contact with the pasta anyway.  It is a waste of time.  In fact, if you cook your pasta correctly (in a large pan of salted, boiling water) to an al-dente (to the teeth) texture the somewhat sticky, starchy nature of the pasta assists in helping the sauce stick.

The final faux-pas (what's a faux-pas in Italian?) is that you should always finish your pasta sauce by adding it to the drained pasta and pan cook it to mix.  The Italians never serve their pasta and then dump a load of sauce on top of it.

The Italians are rather fastidious about their pasta - they insist that certain sauces are used with specific pasta.  One example of this is spaghetti bolognese - the Italians would never serve a bolognese sauce with spaghetti.  A thick, meaty sauce like this should be served with something like rigatoni, or at least something with a hole in it, so it can absorb the sauce.  It is for this reason that when you eat your "spag bol" you find that half of it is down your previously clean work shirt.

Last night I made pork, pancetta and thyme meatballs with a fresh tomato sauce (pomodoro).  Actually the vine tomatoes that we are getting at the moment are not quite sweet, or indeed red enough to make a good pomodoro.  For this reason I added a tin of decent peeled-plum tomatoes.

The sauce was simply made:

• About 10 large red as can be, vine tomatoes.  I de-seeded them, but couldnt be bothered to remove their skins, so I blitzed them up in a blender.
• I browned the meatballs in a pan and then removed them.
• I added to the same pan, 3 finely shredded sticks of celery (my new best friend in the kitchen), 2 small onions finely chopped, and 4 garlic gloves (finely chopped).  These were sweated off.
• I added the tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste and some tomato ketchup (to sweeten - you can use sugar if you don't like ketchup).  In this instance I also added a can of peeled-plum tomatoes, but only because I was not satisfied with the redness, or sweetness of the fresh tomatoes.
• I cooked it on low gas for 1hr 20 minutes, so it reduced and became thick, glossy and sweetened.
• I added a few glugs of decent extra virgin olive oil and checked the seasoning.
• Add the meatballs in at the last minute to warm.

I served it with a simple rocket salad, dressed with a heavy-on-the-vinegar vinaigrette.  It was semplicemente deliziosa!