Name: Pasta al Pomodoro (Fresh Tomato Sauce)
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 pound spaghetti or linguine; 2 pounds ripe tomatoes (San Marzano, Roma, or the best you can find); ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil; 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced; ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional); Salt; 1 large bunch fresh basil; Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for serving

This is the simplest pasta in the Italian canon and possibly the best. It exists for one reason: to showcase a truly ripe tomato. When tomatoes are at their summer peak — heavy, fragrant, splitting at the seams — this is what you make. Five ingredients. No shortcuts needed because none exist.

Ingredients

1 pound spaghetti or linguine

2 pounds ripe tomatoes (San Marzano, Roma, or the best you can find)

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

Salt

1 large bunch fresh basil

Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for serving

Method

Score a small X on the bottom of each tomato. Blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds, then transfer to ice water. The skins will slip right off. Core and roughly chop the tomatoes, catching all the juice.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or wide saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic slices and cook, stirring, until they're just golden — about 2 minutes. Watch carefully; garlic goes from golden to burnt in seconds.
Add the red pepper flakes and stir for 10 seconds.
Add the tomatoes with all their juice and a generous pinch of salt. Increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally and breaking up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon, for 15 to 20 minutes. The sauce should reduce and thicken but still be loose and bright — not a thick paste.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in well-salted boiling water until 1 minute short of al dente. Reserve 1 cup pasta water before draining.
Tear most of the basil leaves and stir them into the sauce.
Add the drained pasta directly to the sauce. Toss over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes, adding pasta water a few tablespoons at a time until the sauce clings to the noodles.
Serve with remaining basil leaves, a drizzle of olive oil, and Parmesan at the table.
*Storage:** The sauce (without pasta) keeps refrigerated for 5 days or frozen for 3 months. Don't store cooked pasta in sauce — it gets mushy.
*Seasonal note:** This recipe will be mediocre with winter tomatoes. That's not a flaw — it's a feature. Make it only when tomatoes are at their best, and it'll be extraordinary every single time. If you grow paste tomatoes (San Marzano, Amish Paste), this is their highest calling.