Pasta alla Vesuviana Recipe
Pasta all Vesuviana is a quick no nonsense tomato and cheese sauce from Naples, it's great because it's not messed with, no flavour is diluted here. Napoli cuisine is pizza, spaghetti puttanesca (translates as 'street walker' and that dish and this dish - Vesuviana can be made between tricks) you see these people don't hang about. At street cafe's they smoke cigarettes whilst they eat, whilst berating their friends and enemies across the street. But hey that's the Napolitano. Their cooking like them is intense and full of flavour.
Your choice of pasta 200 gram
Tin Toms chopped
Olive Oil
Pecorino 50gm
Mozzarella 50/100gm
Oregano
Seasoning
Method - ten mins cooking and ten in an oven - the sauce is cooked in the eight or nine mins your pasta is.
Put your oven on to 180.
Put pasta in boiling water with salt. You want it al dente so three mins less than packet instructions.
Put olive oil a pan enough to cover the bottom of the pan, that's important, don't just put a little in, and heat it till it is really hot. Add chopped toms, it may splash so be careful.
Put pasta in boiling water with salt. You want it al dente so three mins less than packet instructions.
Put olive oil a pan enough to cover the bottom of the pan, that's important, don't just put a little in, and heat it till it is really hot. Add chopped toms, it may splash so be careful.
After two mins on med/high add the grated cheeses. Add oregano. Season with lots of salt and pepper. Keep the sauce very hot but don't let it stick to the pan.
When the pasta is cooked drain it and add to sauce and transfer all to a pyrex dish. Put more sliced Mozzarella on top and put it in the oven for five to ten mins.
Or just serve with more Pecorino.
When the pasta is cooked drain it and add to sauce and transfer all to a pyrex dish. Put more sliced Mozzarella on top and put it in the oven for five to ten mins.
Or just serve with more Pecorino.
It's twenty or thirty years since I last made this and when my children were very young I made this frequently for them, the melting Mozzarella made telegraph wires from their plates to the spoon by their mouths and dripping sauce went down their tops, happy memories of happy kids.
There's more to this dish though, it works with cheddar and I know it's just tomato and cheese but a piece of good bread and a glass of good red wine and I'm all good too.
There's more to this dish though, it works with cheddar and I know it's just tomato and cheese but a piece of good bread and a glass of good red wine and I'm all good too.