Almost anything with artichoke hearts has got to be good as far as I’m concerned.  And, this sauce for pasta can be hot and hearty – or cool and crisp, depending upon your mood – or the Season. As my tomatoes have ripened in my garden all at the same time, I am happy to have used up quite a few tomatoes for this dish.  We did serve it warm with tortellini and some cheese ravioli a few nights ago – but I prefer it cold in the summer with a splash of red wine vinegar to brighten it up (- yesterday’s lunch).

The original recipe hails from a favorite old cookbook, The Silver Palate Cookbook by Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso (c. 1979 Workman Pub.).  The exact quantities of ingredients really don’t matter.  The sauce will taste a little bit different each time you make if you don’t follow the quantities exactly – but it’s all good!

fresh herbs are added to the onions which are just becoming translucent.

I believe the flavors are more developed when you use dried herbs and cook the sauce for the suggested time – and if you do this, there is no reason to use fresh tomatoes – the canned ones are just fine.  In the summer, I use fresh herbs and cut the cooking time down by almost half so that the tomatoes retain some of their freshness.  You just have be sure to cook the onions by themselves a bit longer so they soften and their flavor mellows.  It does help to follow the instructions to blanche, cool, peel and chop the fresh tomatoes. A few seeds and skin are fine, but when you cook this for a while, the skins can be annoying.  I used a few small cherry tomatoes in the end and did not peel those.

place tomatoes in boiling salted water for 10-20 seconds to soften the skin.

place them in an ice bath to quickly cool them down so the skin will peel off easily.

artichoke hearts are added this time before the tomatoes

A big note about the coarsely ground black pepper.  If you follow the recipe and use the 3 Tbs of whole peppercorns that you crush with a mortar and pestle, this sauce will be VERY hot.  I like the heat for a little while, but it lingers in your mouth and throat just too long – and the pepper just overpowers everything else.  I probably use about 1 TBS total and just use a pepper mill on the most coarse setting so the pepper chunks are large.  This gives plenty of heat and flavor.

The original recipe only calls for 1/4 cup of romano cheese.  I followed the recipe this time, but think a bit more cheese is better – at least when you serve it up.  I found a frozen spinach filled tortellini that was quite good.  They were small and had a great bite – not too rich and cheesy.  They held up beautifully cold – they didn’t get mushy and soft, absorbing all of the liquid as some pasta does.

One note about artichoke hearts – they can be quite expensive, especially the marinated ones.  You can buy canned artichoke hearts and marinate them yourself.  Or, watch for them seasonally at Sam’s or Costco.  They come in two packs, 33 oz jars.  Half a jar is plenty for this recipe – and the remainder can be kept in your refrigerator to use for sandwiches, salads or pizzas.  The other jar is fine in the pantry until you want to make this again!

Pasta Sauce Raphael

Full recipe will sauce 4 pounds of pasta

Preparation time about 20 minutes, cook time 1 1/2 hours.

Ingredients

4 pounds ripe, meaty tomatoes – you can substitute 2 large 32 ounce cans of diced tomatoes when fresh tomatoes are not a good option.

12 ounces marinated artichoke hearts

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped or crushed

1/4 cup dried basil (or 1 cup fresh basil, divided in half)

1/2 tablespoon dried oregano (or 2 Tbs fresh oregano, divided in half)

1/2 cup finely chopped italian parsley

1/2 to 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 to 3 Tbs. coarsely ground black pepper

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup grated imported romano cheese (or parmesan)

 

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Drop tomatoes, a few at a time into boiling water.  Scald for 10 seconds, then with a slotted sposon transfer to a bowl of ice water.  Scald all tomatoes in this fashion, then drain and slip off skins.  Cut croswise into halves, squeeze out seeds and juice.  Chop coarsely and reserve. If using canned tomatoes, you may want to drain some of the liquid off before sautéing with the onions.  Reserve the liquid and adjust the sauce consistency in the last 30-40 minutes.

Drain artichokes and reserve marinade.

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan and saute onions, garlic, dried basil and oregano, parsley and dried red pepper  (If using fresh oregano and basil, chop half and add to onion mixture).  Saute for 5 minutes.  Add black peppercorns to your liking –  3 TBS will make it very hot – my preference is about 1 TBS.  You can add more later too.

Add tomatoes to the sauce, season with about 1 tsp salt and simmer uncovered over medium heat for 1 hour.  With good fresh tomatoes, I often only cook for 30 minutes so a fresh flavor remains.

Add reserved artichoke marinade and simmer for another 20-30 minutes.

Stir in artichokes and continue to simmer until rich and thick 15 to 20 minutes.

If using fresh herbs, chop and add them to the sauce.

Stir in Romano cheese, taste to adjust seasoning and serve over your favorite pasta.  My preference is tortellini.

 

Notes

Original recipe adapted from The Silver Palette Cookbook, Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins (c. 1979 Workman Publishing).

This sauce is delicious hot – but I think better cold as a pasta salad.  Sometimes I add a splash of red wine vinegar to give it a little more lively acidic flavor when served cold.