Penne with Garden Scent

La storia di questo piatto

Penne al Profumo d'Orto is a home-kitchen verse in the Italian vegetable-garden tradition, not an ancient recipe: carrot, white onion and cherry tomatoes gather in a bowl of pasta, lifted by a green breath of mint. It speaks of a humble Italian orto, where everything grows within arm's reach.

Ingredienti

• 320 g pasta (penne or fusilli)
• 500 g cherry tomatoes
• 100 g white onion
• 120 g carrots
• 20 g fresh mint
• 60 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 g fine salt
• 2 g black pepper
• 2000 ml pasta cooking water
• 14 g coarse salt for the cooking water

Preparazione

1. Peel the carrots and onion and cut them into fine 5 mm dice. Lightly crush the garlic cloves with the flat of the blade. Wash the cherry tomatoes and halve them. Pick the mint leaves from the sprigs and set them aside in a small bowl, without chopping: they will be torn by hand only at the end, off the heat.
2. In a wide pan pour the extra virgin olive oil and the crushed garlic, then heat over low heat for 3-4 minutes in total, until the garlic is fragrant and just turning golden, without darkening it so it does not turn bitter. Remove the garlic with a slotted spoon and discard it: the oil stays flavoured and ready for the soffritto. Meanwhile, in a large pot, put on the 2 litres of water, covered, to bring it gently to the boil.
3. Add the onion and carrot dice to the pan with the flavoured oil (without garlic) over medium heat, with 1 g of fine salt (of the 3 g total), and cook for 6-7 minutes, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until the onion is translucent and the carrots begin to soften.
4. Add the halved cherry tomatoes and cook for 15-18 minutes over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick and concentrated: the liquid should almost completely evaporate and the tomatoes release their caramelised sweetness. The water in the pot, started during the soffritto, will by now be at or near the boil: keep it covered over minimum heat until needed. When the sauce has about 9-10 minutes left, bring the water back to a vigorous boil.
5. When the sauce has about 9-10 minutes left and the water is boiling vigorously, salt it with 14 g of coarse salt and add the pasta, cooking it for 1-2 minutes less than the time on the package (usually 9-12 minutes, so about 8-9 minutes), stirring occasionally. When tasted it should be fairly al dente, as it will finish cooking in the sauce. Meanwhile continue cooking the sauce, which should be thick and ready just as the pasta is drained; in the last minutes lower the heat to minimum and cover. Pasta cooking and finishing the sauce coincide: the pasta is drained when the sauce is ready.
6. Drain the pasta, reserving a cup (about 200 ml) of the cooking water. Transfer the pasta into the pan with the hot sauce, over high heat, and toss for 1-2 minutes, gradually adding the cooking water, until you obtain a creamy emulsion that coats the pasta. Turn off the heat, adjust with the remaining 2 g of fine salt and the pepper, then tear the mint by hand directly over the plate and stir gently. If desired, finish with a thread of raw extra virgin olive oil; as a variation, a grating of salted ricotta.