Pasta allo Scarpariello

A sauce of cherry tomatoes carrying far more cheese than it looks able to.

Not vegetarian — contains Pecorino Romano made with lamb rennet, parmesan whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 400 g spaghetti or mezzani
• 600 g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 80 g pecorino romano, finely grated
• 80 g parmesan, finely grated
• 3 garlic cloves, whole
• 1 dried chilli
• a large handful of basil
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Warm the oil with the whole garlic cloves and the chilli, then lift the garlic out once it smells.
2. Add the halved cherry tomatoes and cook hard for 12 minutes, crushing some against the pan. Keep it SHORT — the sauce should still taste fresh and be loose enough to move.
3. Cook the pasta to two minutes short and keep plenty of its water.
4. TAKE THE PAN OFF THE HEAT. Add the pasta, a ladle of its water, and then BOTH CHEESES IN THREE HANDFULS, tossing hard between each.
5. A HUNDRED AND SIXTY GRAMS OF CHEESE TO FOUR HUNDRED OF PASTA is a great deal, and it is the dish: this was made from the ends of whatever cheese was left, and the sauce is as much cheese emulsion as tomato.
6. Both cheeses, not one. Pecorino alone is too sharp at this quantity and parmesan alone too mild.
7. If it tightens, more pasta water and keep tossing. Basil at the table.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes