Tomato Basil Pappardelle

Overview

A high-yolk 00 and semolina dough gives tender, golden ribbons with a little bite. Rolling them thin by hand leaves the slightly rough surface that sauce grips. The sauce is Hazan’s butter, tomato and onion simmer, which uses fat rather than sugar to round out the acidity, with basil stems added for a quiet herbal backbone. The pasta comes out of the water slightly underdone and finishes in the skillet with starchy water and cold butter until the sauce turns glossy and clings to every wide ribbon.

Steps

1. Make the basil oil

Bring about 2 quarts of water to a rolling boil in the Dutch oven. Set up a bowl of ice water alongside. Drop in the 1 cup of packed basil leaves for 10–15 seconds, just until they turn vivid green and go limp. Immediately move them to the ice bath; stopping the cooking locks in the chlorophyll so the oil stays bright instead of turning khaki. Once cold, squeeze the leaves as dry as possible in a towel, because water left in the leaves makes the oil cloudy and shortens its life. Rough-chop them, put them in a tall narrow container with the olive oil, and blend with the immersion blender for 1–2 minutes, until the oil is deep green and faintly warm. Pour it through a fine-mesh sieve lined with a paper towel or coffee filter and let it drip without pressing. Refrigerate until serving. Empty the Dutch oven and keep it for the pasta.

2. Mix the dough

Weigh the eggs and yolks together; you want 190–200 g. Add another yolk if you’re short, or hold back a little white if you’re over. Beat them lightly with a fork. Pulse the 00 flour, semolina and salt in the food processor to combine. With the motor running, pour in the eggs and process about 45 seconds. You want clumps that look like coarse wet sand and press into a cohesive ball that feels barely tacky. If the dough smears onto the blade or sticks to your fingers, add 00 flour 1 tablespoon at a time. If it won’t hold together when squeezed, leave it alone for now; it hydrates as it rests.

3. Knead and rest

Turn the dough onto a clean, unfloured counter and press it into a mass. Knead for 6–8 minutes: push it away with the heel of your hand, fold it back, and rotate a quarter turn each time. It starts out rough and stiff and ends smooth, satiny and elastic; a dent made with your finger should spring back slowly. Wrap it tightly in plastic and rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes, and up to 1 hour. Resting lets the flour fully hydrate and the gluten relax. Skip it and the sheets will snap back and tear when you roll them.

Dough rest — 30 min

4. Start the sauce

While the dough rests, crush the tomatoes by hand into the 12-inch stainless skillet. Squeeze each one through your fingers until it is in small, ragged pieces, and pull out any tough stem cores. Pour in all the juices from the can. Add the 5 tablespoons of butter, the onion halves cut side down, the basil stems and 0.75 tsp kosher salt. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, then lower the heat so it bubbles lazily, with a few slow blips across the surface. Cook uncovered for about 45 minutes, crushing the tomatoes against the pan with a wooden spoon every 10 minutes. The wide skillet reduces faster than a pot. If it gets thick before the time is up, add a splash of water. The sauce is ready when droplets of butter float freely on the surface, the tomatoes have collapsed into a coarse, jammy sauce, and a spoon dragged across the pan leaves a trail that fills in slowly.

Sauce simmer — 45 min

5. Roll the sheets

Cut the rested dough into 4 pieces. Keep 3 wrapped while you work. Flatten one piece into a disk on a very lightly semolina-dusted counter. Excess dusting flour makes the dough slip and snap back. Roll with long, even strokes from the center outward, rotating the sheet a quarter turn every few passes so it stays round and even. Flip it occasionally. Keep going until the sheet is about 1 mm thick, roughly a 14-inch oval, and you can see the outline of your fingers through it when you hold it up. If it fights back hard, cover it with a towel for 5 minutes and try again. Lay each finished sheet on a semolina-dusted surface and repeat with the remaining dough. Let the sheets air-dry for 5–10 minutes, flipping once, until they feel leathery but still bend without cracking. Drying them slightly stops the folds from sticking together when you cut.

Dry sheets — 10 min

6. Cut the pappardelle

Dust a sheet lightly with semolina. Fold it loosely onto itself in 3-inch folds, or roll it into a flat log, without pressing the layers together. With a sharp chef’s knife, cut straight down into ribbons 0.75–1 inch (2–2.5 cm) wide. Lift and shake the ribbons apart right away, toss them with a little more semolina, and coil them into loose nests on a semolina-dusted sheet pan. Cover with a kitchen towel so the edges don’t dry and crack. Repeat with the remaining sheets.

7. Finish the sauce base

Remove and discard the onion halves and basil stems. Taste and adjust the salt. The sauce should taste round and sweet-tart, with no tinny edge; if it still tastes sharp, simmer 5 minutes more. You should have about 2 to 2.5 cups. Keep it warm in the skillet over the lowest heat.

8. Boil the pasta

Bring 4 quarts of water to a hard boil in the Dutch oven and add the 4 tablespoons of Diamond Crystal salt (or 2 tablespoons Morton). It should taste pleasantly seasoned. Using less water than usual concentrates the starch, which helps the emulsion later. Shake the excess semolina off the nests and drop them in, stirring gently to separate the ribbons. Cook for 60–90 seconds, until the ribbons float, turn pliable, and still have a slightly firm, opaque core when you bite one. Before moving the pasta, scoop out 1 cup of the cloudy cooking water.

Cook pasta — 1.5 min

9. Mantecatura: build the emulsion

Turn the skillet to medium-high. Use tongs or a spider to lift the pasta straight into the sauce; a little clinging water is welcome. Add 1/3 cup of the reserved pasta water and the 2 tablespoons of cold cubed butter. Toss constantly for 45–60 seconds, lifting the ribbons and swirling the pan. The starch, butter and agitation together emulsify the sauce into a glossy coating instead of a watery pool. It’s ready when the sauce looks satiny, clings to every ribbon, and a spatula drag across the pan leaves a track that refills slowly. If it tightens or looks pasty, loosen it with another splash of pasta water.

Toss in sauce — 1 min

10. Cheese and basil off the heat

Take the skillet off the heat. Scatter in the Parmigiano and toss until it melts into the sauce. Adding it off the heat keeps it from seizing into clumps. Tear the remaining basil leaves directly over the pan and give one or two final folds. Basil’s aroma fades fast with heat, so this keeps it at full strength. Twirl the pasta into warm shallow bowls, spoon any remaining sauce over the top, drizzle with basil oil, and finish with more Parmigiano. Serve immediately.

Notes

• A modern pairing, not a regional classic: Pappardelle comes from Tuscany, where it is traditionally served with game ragùs such as wild boar. Tomato and basil belongs to southern Italian cooking with dried pasta. This version works because the butter-rich sauce and the mantecatura finish give the sauce enough body to coat a wide egg ribbon.
• Choosing tomatoes: Use whole peeled canned tomatoes, which are the most versatile and the easiest to crush to the texture you want. A DOP San Marzano label doesn’t guarantee quality, and tasters disagree on brands. Pick a can whose tomatoes taste bright and sweet, not metallic. In peak summer you can use 2.5 lb of ripe plum tomatoes, peeled and seeded, instead.
• Dough troubleshooting: If the dough is crumbly after kneading, wrap it and rest it before you decide it needs water; the flour keeps hydrating. If it’s still dry after resting, work in water a few drops at a time. If it’s sticky and tearing, dust it lightly with flour rather than kneading in a lot more. All-purpose flour can replace the 00 for a slightly chewier result.
• Using a pasta roller: If you have a stand-mixer pasta roller attachment, it is faster than a rolling pin. Pass each piece through the widest setting twice, folding it in thirds between passes. Then work down the settings two passes each, stopping at the second-thinnest setting (6 or 7 on most KitchenAid rollers).
• Make-ahead and storage: The sauce keeps 3 days in the fridge. Rewarm it gently with a splash of water before finishing. Basil oil keeps 3–4 days refrigerated; bring it to room temperature before drizzling. Freeze the pasta nests uncovered on the semolina-dusted sheet pan until hard, then bag them for up to 1 month. Cook from frozen, adding about 30 seconds.
• Fixing acidity without sugar: If the sauce tastes sharp, simmer it longer and add another tablespoon of butter before reaching for sugar. Butter smooths acidity without flattening the flavor. For a smoother, more clinging texture, give the sauce 2–3 quick pulses with the immersion blender. Blending longer aerates the sauce and turns it orange.
• Common mistakes: Overcooking the pasta is the biggest one. Fresh ribbons need only 60–90 seconds in the water because they finish in the sauce. Don’t chop basil with a knife ahead of time; it bruises and blackens, so tear it at the last moment. Don’t flood the pan with pasta water. Add it in splashes, aiming for coated ribbons rather than a pool of sauce.