Pappardelle with slow roasted tomatoes and salami
This is all about small tomatoes, slow-roasted on a low heat until they intensify. In the previous post, I got a little misty eyed about eating an excellent example of these in Italy, and when I got back, I just had to make some. They're really extraordinarily simple - the ingredients are tomatoes, heat, and time. There's an option on a dash of balsamic vinegar, of course.You juggle these simple variables until the texture and piquancy comes right, then you throw them through pasta or whack them on bruschetta, or just eat them with your fingers as soon as they're cool enough to handle. This is a recipe for the former, but I will not judge you for the latter even a little.The tomatoes take a while, but they'll keep, so you can prepare them in advance. That makes this a great weeknight, zero effort supper. Spend a lazy Sunday afternoon roasting tomatoes, and bung them in a jar. Then you can make dinner with them in about fifteen minutes.Here I've used baby plum tomatoes. At Alla Stella they'd gone for cherry, which were deeper and sweeter. They'd also been fastidious about cutting them horizontally. Quite apart from the segmented rounds of the core making for excellent presentation, this helps them hold their structure and not collapse too much in the roasting. Too much - of course they're going to shrivel down. That's kind of the point.
Ingredients:
- Tomatoes, cherry or baby plum, probably about 500g for two people
- Balsamic vinegar
- Sugar
- Pasta, in this case pappardelle
- Garlic, 1 clove
- Chilli, about half a red one
- Salami, in this case a coarse Italian one flavoured with Barolo