Spaghetti Pomodoro from The Bear
I’ve stated my love for Hulu’s The Bear on a few occasions, like when I recreated the omelette that Sous chef Sydney made in Season 2, episode 9, for a TikTok video.
One dish that really seemed to take a bit of a spotlight during The Bear Season 1 was the spaghetti pomodoro that sparked a bit of controversy in The Original Beef’s kitchen.
It goes like this, The Beef’s former owner, Michael Berzatto, used to make a family recipe for a spaghetti pomodoro that used to be a big seller on the menu.
When Carmy, Michael’s younger brother, took over, one of the first things he did was take the spaghetti dish off of the menu, claiming that the dish “Doesn’t make any sense on this menu…” and was “…an under-seasoned, over-sauced mess and took 7 hours to prep.”, as quoted in Season 1: Episode 1 titled ‘System.’
Funnily enough, this dish came back to bite him in the season 1 finale when, in a letter that his brother left for Carmy, the recipe for the spaghetti dish was mentioned and it turned out that Michael had stashed thousands of dollars in large tomato cans, which totaled to $300,000.
I doubt that I’m going to find a bunch of money in any tomato cans today, but I do think it’s time to see what the commotion is about with this spaghetti.
Before diving into the recipe, here’s a quick word about canned tomatoes. I know that chefs are always claiming that freshness is essential to good cooking, but the fact is that canned tomatoes are used in both home kitchens and restaurant kitchens all over the world.
Canned tomatoes are convenient, have a long shelf life, and, assuming you’re buying the right kind, can deliver the same amount of sweetness, flavor, and texture to any sauce, stew, or chili.
The best kind of tomatoes you can buy are whole peeled tomatoes, even better are San Marzano tomatoes from the Campania region in Italy. With whole peeled tomatoes, producers often use the freshest, ripest, sweetest tomatoes they can harvest.
Now, when talking about the more processed tomatoes like canned crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, or tomato puree, they often get away with using the lesser quality tomatoes.
In something like chili where the tomato flavor is masked, then this is fine, but for something like a tomato-based sauce, I really do think that it’s worth springing for the best tomatoes you can find.
Ok, with all of that said, let’s get to the recipe! I’ll be going along with the steps that Carmy used in The Bear’s Season 1 finale.
Spaghetti from The Bear
Servings: 4 to 6
1/2 cup of olive oil
10 cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
1 large sprig of fresh basil, plus some small leaves for garnish
A pinch of chili flakes
1/2 of an onion, peeled and left whole
2 (28-ounce) cans of San Marzano tomatoes
Salt and pepper
1 pound of spaghetti
Freshly grated parmesan cheese, for garnish
Pour the olive oil into a cold medium saucepan along with the garlic, basil, chili flakes, and onion half (cut side down).
Heat the pot over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes, or until the garlic is sizzling, almost starting to brown, and the onion starts to brown as well.
What I’m doing is I’m infusing the oil with the garlic, the basil, the onion, and that will translate into depth of flavor later on.
Drain the tomatoes, then lightly crush with your hands and add to the pot, stirring to combine. Bring the liquid to a simmer, then cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened.
Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a pot of salted boiling water according to the directions for al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water, then drain.
Remove the onion and basil stems from the sauce, season with salt and pepper, then add the pasta and cook for another minute, or until the pasta has absorbed some of the sauce. Add pasta water, if needed to loosen the sauce.
Dump the pasta onto a serving platter, then top with the sliced basil leaves and a generous grating of parmesan.
With all this talk about modern cuisine and using fancy chemicals to turn liquids into spheres or oils into powders, we seem to have forgotten some of the basic dishes that built the foundation for many cuisines around the world, and this is one of them.
This spaghetti pomodoro would likely make Michael proud and is worth making if you need a quick weeknight dinner.
Plus, if you have any sauce left over, you can save that for pizza, more pasta, or anything else you need a tasty tomato sauce for.
