Spaghetti napolitana with tomato and basil
Napolitana is the mother of Italian tomato sauces.
Tomatoes, garlic, basil, and olive oil, nothing more, from the city of Naples that taught the planet pasta. The mother sauce that, once you master it, makes every tomato sauce after it a branch.
In a wide pan over gentle heat, warm the olive oil with the garlic cloves crushed with the back of the knife. Whole, not chopped: they scent and are picked out later, for the garlic of Naples sauce is a whisper, not a shout.
Pour in the crushed tomatoes, salt, a pinch of sugar, and a whole basil stem, and cook over gentle heat for fifteen minutes, during which they thicken, lose their raw sharpness, and deepen in red. This fifteen-minute sauce beats jars of ready-made sauce by a mile.
Boil the spaghetti in salted water a minute short, transfer it with tongs to the sauce with a ladle of boiling water, and toss over the heat for a minute during which it absorbs and is coated. The pasta finishes cooking in its sauce: Italy's first law.
Turn off the heat and pick out the garlic and basil stem, and tear fresh basil leaves by hand over it. Tearing, not chopping, preserves its aroma, and serve it with the parmesan: the mother of tomato sauces by which all that comes after is measured.
The glycemic index (GI) measures how quickly a food raises blood sugar, while the glycemic load (GL) measures how much a full serving raises it. Together they give the complete picture.
A low value (≤55) means a gradual rise in blood sugar — the most suitable range for diabetes and insulin resistance.
Glycemic load reflects the impact of the full serving. To lower it: take half a serving, or pair the recipe with a source of protein and fiber.
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000-calorie diet per FDA food-label reference values — your daily needs may be higher or lower. Values are derived from the recipe's ingredients via the USDA database.
The most common problems when preparing Spaghetti Napolitana with Tomato and Basil, and how to fix them:
Cheap canned tomatoes or short cooking. A good can, the full fifteen minutes, and the pinch of sugar. All three together.
Cooked in a rush, covered. Uncovered over gentle heat it thickens, and its right texture coats the spoon in a light coat.
It was chopped instead of fully crushed. Whole cloves crushed with the back of the knife are picked out at the end. The whisper of Naples.
It went on the heat early and chopped. Its stem for cooking and its torn leaf to finish off the heat. Its fixed law.
With its fresh basil. A plate of the moment.
Four days in a jar. The week's sauce ready for pasta, pizza, and toast.
Three months in containers. The permanent stash of the mother of sauces.
| Original Ingredient | Tested Substitute | Ratio | Flavor Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canned tomatoes | Fresh ripe grated tomatoes in season | 600 g | Longer cooking and truer in summer |
| Spaghetti | Penne or whole-wheat | 1:1 | All the strands are daughters of the mother sauce |
| A protein addition | Tuna or our meatballs | ~ | The mother embraces everyone |
| Parmesan | Grated Roumy cheese | 1:1 | The nearest neighbor on the shelf and in price |
| Ingredient | 3 servings | 1.5 servings | 6 servings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spaghetti | 300 g | 150 g | 600 g |
| Tomato | 400 g | 200 g | 800 g |
| Olive oil | 45 ml | 25 ml | 90 ml |
The small pinch of sugar with the salt is not cheating. It is the correction of canned tomatoes' acidity that the kitchens of Italy themselves do: it restores the balance of the ripe fruit lost in the can; a pinch on the tip of the spoon, not a spoonful.
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