The Bear's Tomato Pasta Recipe (for your Regular Rotation)

Recipe: Tomato Pasta Recipe »

This tomato pasta deserves a spot on everyone's dinner roster. It is so simple but delicious and is a cinch to make. This recipes comes from The FX show The Bear and is just made with the simplest ingredients: tinned San Marzano tomatoes, spaghetti, onion, basil and olive oil. Like the best recipes, this is more than just a sum of its parts. I'm also going to share a trick with you so that you can use any tinned tomatoes for this with the same result. This is a fantastic weeknight dinner and we cannot get enough of it here and have made it 4 times already in the last couple of weeks!

About This Tomato Pasta From The Bear

This is the the tomato pasta served for family meal in season 1 episode 8 of The Bear. I know I'm late to this, the show now on the fourth season but it was only when a friend made it and told me how good it was, that I tried it. And she was right, this is definitely going on regular rotation. While the ingredients for this are super simple (tinned tomatoes, spaghetti, onion, basil and olive oil), there is something that happens when you mix all of these up that makes it kitchen alchemy.

In the show the spaghetti was something that Carmy's brother Michael made and it was the best selling dish by far. Once Carmy took over the restaurant after Michael passed away, Carmy didn't want to make it because he considered it sloppy and that it didn't fit his vision for a restaurant. But when he realises that Michael shared his recipe for the spaghetti with him, he serves it for family or staff dinner. And well, that's when things get very exciting (no spoilers!).

Part of the reason why this pasta sauce is so good is because of the San Marzano tomatoes. San Marzano tomatoes are an elongated plum shaped tomato - like a skinnier Roma tomato. They are prized as they are sweet in flavour and meaty in texture. They are also low in acid, water and seeds. You can get San Marzano tomatoes at Italian delis and supermarkets are now starting to stock these. My recipe is based on the one by Ross Yoder at Buzzfeed which is based on the one on the show.

But do you really need San Marzano tomatoes? I mean a 400g/14oz tin is $4.50 while a tin of diced Italian toms are $1.50 so you can see why I was curious. And I've tested these with these cheaper tomatoes and I've got great news: it's still utterly delicious with regular canned tomatoes. The trick to sweeten and make your tomato sauce less acidic is a bit of good old fashioned bicarb or baking soda! This neutralises the acidity.

I don't want to oversell it, it is really just a tomato spaghetti dish but it truly nails delicious simplicity. I get so excited when I know its tomato pasta night!

Ingredients For Tomato Pasta

• San Marzano tomatoes - whole tinned San Marzano tomatoes are the tomato that they use for this sauce in the show but you know you don't need to use these. Any tinned tomatoes will do and you can use already diced ones too.

• Bicarb - your secret weapon to make your tomato sauce sing with sweetness! As an alkaline, bicarb or baking soda reacts with acidic tomatoes and neutralises it.

• Brown onion - You can also use a white or red onion. We are using this just for the flavour and it will be discarded once the sauce is made.

• Extra virgin olive oil - For cooking use extra virgin olive oil (not virgin or pure olive oil).
• Basil - we need fresh basil for this pasta. Bunches of fresh basil are so skinny in winter because basil is a summer herb so if you have a super large summer bunch you may not need it all.
• Garlic - fresh whole peeled garlic cloves are used in this recipe.
• Red chilli flakes - these are optional but I love adding a bit of heat to a dish.
• Spaghetti - use any dried pasta you like. I happen to love spaghetti and this is what they use in the show too. Plus we always seem to have spaghetti in the pantry.

Tips For Making Tomato Pasta

1 - When using the onion, cut it in half lengthways through the root so that the onion half stays intact. After that you can peel the onion halves.

2 - It's worth seeking out San Marzano tomatoes if you're curious about what they're like but every other time I made this, I used regular tinned tomatoes.

3 - As we are blending up all of the basil oil ingredients avoid using the thicker basil stalks, the smaller ones attached to the leaves are fine.

4 - I use my slowest gas burner for the basil oil because I don't want the garlic to overcook or get burnt. You want it gently cooked so that the garlic is soft and mellow and it shouldn't be browned.

5 - Don't be alarmed, this has a bit of butter and oil but I suggest having some bread to scarpetta up any olive oil left on your plate.

6 - Top tip: If the tomatoes are a bit sour try stirring in 1/2 teaspoon of bicarb. Bicarb or baking soda neutralises the acidity of tomatoes, particularly tinned tomatoes.

7 - Like many pastas, this is best served fresh before the sauce absorbs into the pasta. Make sure to add the pasta cooking water too as this extends the sauce.

8 - If you love really, really saucy pasta (and I do!) then you can definitely upp the quantity to 3x400g/14oz tins of San Marzano tomatoes. Just adjust the remaining ingredients to accommodate the additional tin of tomatoes. I do this if I am serving this to people that may arrive late (my in-laws!) or if we may not eat this straight away.

If you have a lot of tomatoes at the moment give this tomato pasta sauce a try that uses fresh or tinned tomatoes, it's from my Italian chef friend Monica. I also love making my own marinara or Napoletana sauce which costs a fraction of what it does at the store. Another favourite tomato pasta is this spaghetti Assassina which is a fiery spicy and very unique pasta recipe from Puglia.

Tomato Pasta Recipe

Adapted from Ross Yoder, via The Bear TV show

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes concurrently

Serves: 4 people

Ingredients Needed

• 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs extra virgin olive oil
• Bunch basil, divided in half
• 5 cloves garlic, halved
• 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes (optional)
• 65g/1/2 stick butter
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large brown onion
• 2x400g/14oz tins San Marzano tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 500g/1.1lb dried spaghetti
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarb or baking soda (if needed)

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 - In a small saucepan add the olive oil, half of the basil (small stalks are fine, avoid thick stalks), garlic and red chilli flakes. Heat on low heat and allow to wilt the basil but do not overcook. Cook on low for 10 minutes until garlic is soft. Place a large pot of salted water onto boil.

Step 2 - While the basil oil is cooking, make the rest of the sauce. Cut the onion in half through the root so that the onion layers stay intact. Peel the skin off the onion halves. Place the butter in a large skillet and melt on medium heat. Add the oil and onion halves cut side down and allow to brown a little, around 3 minutes. Then add the San Marzano tomatoes carefully (gently to avoid splashing). Using a wooden spoon break up the tomatoes. Reduce heat to low and cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Step 3 - Once the basil oil has had its time take it off the heat and allow it to cool a little. When the sauce has had 15 minutes puree the basil oil. Briefly pulse it in a food processor, blender or Thermomix briefly just to a rough chop (Thermomix directions: 5 seconds, speed #5). Add the basil oil to the sauce and stir to mix it and simmer for another 10 minutes or so uncovered. Season with salt and black pepper. The sauce should be sweet from the tomatoes but if it isn't, add 1/2 teaspoon of bicarb to reduce the acidity or sourness. Mix the sauce well.

Step 4 - While the sauce is cooking and has around 8 minutes to go, place the spaghetti in the boiling water and cook for until al dente, around 8-9 minutes. Reserve a third of the sauce for adding on top.

Step 5 - Then using tongs add the pasta to the sauce adding 1/2 cup or so of pasta water to loosen it. Carefully remove the cooked onion halves and discard. Mix the pasta well with the sauce and plate up. Add the extra sauce on top and scatter with the remaining basil leaves and serve straight away.

Personal Note

I made this so many times these past 2 weeks because we've both been sick. First I got sick while on holidays and a few days after we returned, Mr NQN fell like a giant tree in the forest. He usually powers through colds and flu and usually sits at his computer working just for shorter hours. But this time he was out for an entire week. He would not budge from the comfort of the bed.

I don't know if its a made up tale but we both tend to avoid eating dairy when sick with a cold or flu. So all he would eat were clear soups and broths. He would only eat bread if he could dunk it in the soup because it would otherwise hurt this throat. The only non soup food he would eat was this tomato spaghetti. In fact he wolfed it down and he said that the olive oil in the sauce really felt good when he was eating it. The fact that it didn't need any parmesan cheese was only an advantage as far as he was concerned.

Then the funniest oddest thing happened this morning. I was used to sleeping through his coughing so it became like background noise but this morning tiny Teddy Elliott started coughing exactly like Mr NQN does. He didn't seem sick any other way (and he is vaccinated against kennel cough) but his coughs mirrored Mr NQN's exactly. I don't know if he was doing it get attention but Mr NQN was convinced that it was sympathetic coughing!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried The Bear spaghetti? Did you ever watch the show?