Green Pasta with Tomato Sauce & Basil
Submitted by bgwalt
Chef-style emerald green basil pasta with a rich reduction tomato sauce built on veal stock, mirepoix, and white wine. An elegant handmade Italian plate worthy of a tasting menu.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
40 minREADY
60 minRestaurant pasta done properly at home. The noodles start as egg dough blended with pureed fresh basil, which stains the dough a vivid emerald green and folds herbal aroma into every strand. Classic spinach pasta uses blanched leaves; this version uses raw basil puree for a sharper, more fragrant finish.
The sauce is the real chef move. A French-Italian reduction built from butter, mirepoix, shallot puree, thyme, oregano, and bay, deglazed with white wine, then finished with chicken and veal stock alongside fresh tomatoes and tomato purée. The whole thing gets strained smooth and reduced on high heat until glossy.
Swirl the basil pasta in the center of a shallow plate and ladle the sauce around it. Restaurant plating at home.
Chef Tips
- Do not dry the fresh pasta before cooking. Flour-dust and drop it straight into boiling water; dried fresh pasta turns brittle and breaks apart.
- Salt the pasta water like the sea. Fresh pasta cooks so fast it doesn’t absorb salt from a timid pot.
- Strain the sauce through a fine mesh sieve. This is what separates restaurant sauce from home sauce: silky body without any bits.
- Reduce slowly at first, fast at the end. Initial gentle heat extracts flavor from the aromatics; the final high-heat reduction concentrates and thickens.
Variations
- Swap basil for fresh spinach in the pasta dough for a milder grassy note.
- Use duck or mushroom stock in place of veal for a different depth of flavor.
- Finish each plate with a shaving of parmigiano reggiano and a drizzle of good olive oil.
Ingredients
Directions
For the Pasta:
Place the flour on a work space or in the bowl of a mixer. Add egg, salt and pepper. Mix well, then add olive oil and basil puree. Continue mixing.
Roll the dough into a ball and work it by hand until it’s smooth. Sprinkle the dough ball with flour and run it through a pasta machine. Dust the noodles with flour and do not dry before cooking.
For the Sauce:
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the mirepoix, shallot purée, bay leaves, thyme, oregano, and peppercorns. Reduce for 5 minutes (to allow the flavors to come out).
Add white wine and cook briefly. Add the basil, tomatoes, tomato purée, garlic purée, chicken stock and veal stock. Cook for 15 minutes (until the vegetables are soft).
Strain into another saucepan and adjust the seasonings. Reduce the mixture over high heat for 10 minutes. Reserve.
To Assemble:
Cook the pasta in plain boiling water, then drain.
In a sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of basil purée, salt and pepper. Add the pasta to the sauté pan.
Add a little tomato sauce to the pasta and heat.
To serve, ladle the sauce onto serving plates, swirl pasta in the center and garnish with basil leaves and chopped chives.
Comments
