Dish · italian
Pasta al Pomodoro
Spaghetti in a simple tomato sauce built from crushed tomatoes, garlic, basil, and olive oil, cooked down until it thickens enough to coat the noodles. No meat or cream is involved.
Where it comes from
The dish depends on tomatoes reaching Italy from the Americas and becoming common in Italian kitchens by the 18th and 19th centuries, after which simple tomato pastas spread as an everyday, inexpensive meal across the country. No single region claims it.
What cooks argue about
Cooking time for the sauce is the real fight: a quick cook keeps the tomato bright, a longer simmer deepens flavor but risks a duller sauce. Hand-crushed tomatoes versus canned is a separate debate.
Versions
Nobody has published a pasta al pomodoro here yet. When somebody cooks one from a video and publishes it, their version appears in this list, with a link back to the original.
What goes in it
Each one opens everything else made with it.
crushed tomatoes
basil
garlic
olive oil