Today I want to tell you about this recipe that has a deep meaning to me. This is spaghetti al pomodoro granny Virginia's way. When I was in middle school, there was no school canteen and we used to go back home, or to the restaurants nearby for lunch.
Virginia grandma used to live right in front of the school so every week, for lunch time, she used to cook for me this spaghetti. What makes this recipe special, let alone the memories, is a special ingredient that she used in the preparation of the sauce. In facts, usually tomato sauce is made with olive oil, but as North Italian, Virginia grandma used to grease the pan for pre-frying the onions and making the sauce with butter instead of oil.
A huge difference in cooking between North Italy and South Italy is the fact that North Italians prefer to cook with butter and South Italians prefer to use olive oil instead. This difference is something very ancient and comes from the fact that in the North of Italy it was quite difficult to grow olives trees because of climate reasons. This culinary gap shocked even Julius Cesar, who was once offered, in Milano, a dish of asparagus -his favourite vegetable- seasoned with butter, and he had to eat it not to offend his guests, though he felt quite disgusted because... at the time, ancient romans, used butter to grease their horses's seats!
Nowadays this habit is changing even in North Italy in favour of oil for a more cholesterol free diet, and also some people would disagree on this choice of my grandma, but I think that butter gives to the sauce a special flavour that is very lovely and different from the version with oil. Anyway, even in the North of Italy tomato sauce is usually made with oil, and I do not really know if other people make tomato sauce this way. Until now I've heard of no one but my grandma to prepare tomato sauce this way so I think that this butter version is only my grandmother's variation of the original recipe. Do you know other people doing this recipe?
Grandma Virginia never taught me this little secret of hers, and after the middle school years, I long missed this very special flavour that I never tasted anywhere else. Then, some time ago I accidentally realized what I was missing!
Actually, that night I was working on my thesis and it was so late and I was so energy dried that I was feeling dazed, so I took a break to eat something. I wanted something delicious, energetic, quick and easy, so I first decided to make my beloved pasta seasoned with sage flavoured fried butter. But right after melting the butter I felt like I no longer wanted that, and I wanted tomato sauce instead. And what to do with the butter? Our elderly people would say that "to throw away is a sin!", and I kinda remembered one of the mottos of my other grandma, grandma "Lalla" that used to tell me: "if the ingredients are good, it will be good". But most of all I didn't have the time and the strength to throw away the butter, wash the pan and start again the preparation.
So I went on with the recipe. I threw into the melted butter some thinly sliced onion, and waited until it turned golden, and people, what a delicious smell! Then I added the tomato sauce, a pinch of salt, a drop of water and a lot of fresh basil leaves... and, always stirring, let it bubble for as long as needed for the sauce to dry and become creamy. Chefs and experts would say that it would be better to throw in basil only in the end, but I like this way more.
This is home cooking afterall. And home cooking, is messy, imperfect, uncorrect but... still there's nothing like that very unique taste that distinguishes the messy, imperfect, uncorrect, but still better - than - any - restaurant - in - the - world food that our parents and grandparents use to cook for us!
And this is right the kind of taste I want to convey to you today.
Grandma Virginia used to choose for this sauce, the most thin kind of spaghetti she could find, like n.3 or even better, the "capelli d'angelo" kind (angel hair, isn't this a lovely name for a kind of pasta?), and she used to prepare them a little in advance so that I would find them at the perfect temperature, little "fried"-like, and with the flavours perfectly blended.
Though now I get very near to the original taste, I already made my own little variation - to the variation - of my grandma's recipe.
This is my variation: I use both a drop of oil and a nut of butter together!
Here's the recipe:
1. In a frying pan let fry some thinly sliced onion in a drop of oil and some butter. I used half a spoon of butter, but you can adjust to your own taste. Add a pinch of salt and wait until the onion turns golden.
2. Add a lot of tomato sauce and a spoon of water
3. Add some basil leaves and let it cook until the sauce is firm and creamy.
4. Put A LOT of water on the fire, add a fist of coarse salt and wait until the water is boiling. Then add spaghetti and gently push them down with a spoon until they are completely under water. Let them cook for the time written on the packaging, stirring, time to time.
5. When pasta is ready (taste before draining), drain and put in the sauce, add a spoon of the boiling water they cooked in, and turn on the fire. Mix well until the water is well evaporated...
6. ...And spaghetti al pomodoro Virginia grandma's way are ready!!!
I didn't have thin spaghetti at home when I prepared it, so I used bucatini instead. They were still delicious, but thin spaghetti, like n.3 or capelli d'angelo give this sauce a special taste, so I suggest you to try them in both ways if you have the chance!
As always, please let me know if you try this recipe and if you like it! 😊
You can always leave me a message here below in the comments section or by commenting on Instagram 😉
Have a lovely week!
