Description
This is our take on our former colleague Noor Murad’s take on the iconic tomato butter sauce of Marcella Hazan. The clue is in the name of Hazan’s sauce: it turns out that slow-cooking tomatoes in a lot of butter really is the way to make the most comforting and delicious of all sauces. It doesn’t actually taste that buttery, strangely-just silky, smooth, and rich. If you have kids who are, like Tara’s, as yet unconvinced by the wonder that is the roasted eggplant, this dish also works really well without it. Serves 4
Ingredients
- ¼ cup/60ml olive oil
- 2 eggplants, quartered lengthwise and then each quarter cut in half crosswise (1 lb 2 oz/500g)
- 12% oz/350g cherry tomatoes, half sliced and half left whole
- 1 x 14-oz/400g can of diced tomatoes
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 cup/20g basil leaves, roughly torn, plus a few extra leaves to serve
- 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 small, hot red chile, sliced in half lengthwise, but stem intact
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 7 tbsp/100g unsalted butter, cut into ¾-inch/2cm cubes
- 9 oz/250g dried fusilloni (or other large pasta such as paccheri)
- 1⅔ cups/400ml boiling water
- ⅓ oz/10g parsley, roughly chopped
- 1½ oz/40g parmesan, finely grated (⅓ cup)
- salt and black pepper
Method
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Put the oil into a large ovenproof sauté pan, for which you have a lid, along with the eggplants, 1 teaspoon of salt, and a good grind of pepper. Toss to combine, then arrange the eggplants skin side down. Roast for 30 minutes, until nicely golden and starting to catch in places.
- Add all the remaining ingredients to the pan, except the parsley and parmesan, along with ¾ teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper. Stir to combine, then bake for 30 minutes, covered, until the tomatoes have cooked down and the pasta is tender. Don’t worry if all the pasta is not completely covered with liquid at this stage.