Whether it's all covered in cheese or tossed with a deliciously simple sauce, spaghetti is a weeknight staple for good reason. Top those long, thin noodles with a bright tomato sauce and you've got homemade comfort in half an hour.
1. Choose your ingredients.
You'll want about 2 pounds of tomatoes for the sauce.When it comes to choosing an onion for the sauce, go for something sweeter, like Vidalia, for a more subtle flavor. Sweeter onions really let the taste of fresh tomato shine through!
2. Chop away.
Dice the tomatoes and onion. If you have a large food processor, make it easy on yourself: Quarter the tomatoes and give them a quick pulse in the food processor instead of chopping by hand. If you like a smoother sauce, process the tomatoes longer. And if you don't have a food processor, chopping by hand is a good excuse to practice your knife skills!
3. Slice the basil.
Use the chiffonade method (it sounds fancy but is so simple): Just stack 1/4 cup of fresh basil leaves from largest to smallest, roll up the stack with the biggest leaf on the outside, then slice the bundle into thin ribbons. You can't get more efficient than that!
4. Cook your spaghetti noodles.
Use a large pot when boiling noodles—pasta expands while cooking, and you want to be sure it will all fit in the pot by the time it's done. Add a little salt to the water to boost the pasta's flavor—2 teaspoons per quart should be enough. Let the water come to a full boil before adding the spaghetti. As it's boiling in the pot, give it a couple of stirs. This will prevent the pasta from sticking or cooking unevenly.
Follow the directions on the pasta packaging for cook time, but once it's drained, don't rinse it! The starch on the outside helps the sauce cling to the noodles. If the sauce isn't ready yet but the pasta is, pour a cup of the starchy cooking water in with the noodles to prevent them from sticking too much.
5. Saute and simmer.
Grab a stockpot, add olive oil and heat it over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring, for a few minutes. Stir in the diced tomatoes, salt and pepper, and bring it all to a boil. After it's boiling, reduce the heat and simmer until the sauce has thickened up nicely. To make it even thicker, add a splash of pasta water and stir through. The shorter cook time for this sauce means a fresher tomato flavor! You can always keep simmering away for another hour or so, but the result will temper the brightness of those lovely fresh tomatoes.
6. Toss and top.
When the sauce is ready, stir in the basil and—if you like it on the sweeter side—a little sugar to taste. Lightly toss the sauce with the drained spaghetti. When it's time to eat, top with Romano cheese and extra basil.
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