This date night angel hair pasta is a new one we’ve tried as a family, and is now also on heavy repeat. After my first night making this, my son Caleb says to me, ” Mommy what did you do?” I looked at him not knowing what he meant and he continued, ” This is crazy. It’s like crack! We need to have this on heavy repeat. The ultimately compliment and you bet we will be having this on super heavy repeat.
I had actually taken a picture of this recipe from Alex Guarnaschelli’s cookbook Italian American Forever: Classic Recipes for Everything You Want to Eat: A Cookbook while I was at Williams Sonoma back during Mother’s Day for a pasta cooking class. I’ve made some adaptations like adding the 28 oz can of crushed San Marzano Tomatoes and the additional plum tomatoes. This is such a simple meal but has such a fine dining flavor to it, you are sure to put it on repeat a lot yourself! Enjoy!
Date Night Angel Hair Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 large garlic cloves, grated
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- Kosher salt
- 1 lb plum tomatoes, quartered
- 28 oz. San Marzano tomatoes, crushed
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 pound angel hair pasta
- 3 sprigs fresh basil, stemmed
- Pecorino Romano, grated for garnish
Prepare
- First, make the sauce: In a large skillet, warm the olive oil and garlic over medium heat. Add the white wine and a pinch of salt. Simmer until the liquid cooks out and the garlic becomes tender, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Stir in the San Marzano tomatoes and cook another 8 minutes, while stirring occasionally.
- Next, add the plum tomatoes with the San Marzano until the tomatoes have broken down.
- In a separate small saute pan, add 1 Tbsp of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the grape tomatoes stirring, to “fry” the tomatoes for a minute in the oil. Add the cream and stir to mix. Season with salt to taste. Keep warm over low heat. Add this to the large skillet.
- Cook the pasta: In a large pot, bring 4 quarts of water to a rolling boil. Add a generous handful of salt; the pasta water should taste like seawater. Add the pasta and stir with a slotted spoon to make sure it does not clump or stick to the bottom. Cook until al dente, 3 to 4 minutes. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water, then drain the pasta in a large colander.
- Combine the pasta and sauce: Add the hot pasta right from the colander to the skillet and toss to coat with the sauce. Shut off the heat and allow the pasta to rest for 5 to 8 minutes so the pasta absorbs the sauce. If the sauce is too thin, gently warm the pasta over low heat for 1 minute; if it is too thick, simply thin it out with some of the reserved pasta cooking liquid.
- Tear and add the basil.
- Serve: Twirl a portion of the pasta on a serving fork and gently slip it off onto the center of a plate so it’s like a little pasta hill and top with grated Pecorino Romano. Enjoy!
