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- Cuisine: Italian
- Prep Time: 30 min(s)
- Cook Time: 10 min(s)
- Serves 6-8
Chef and author Dominique Rizzo shares her recipe for tomato and saffron pasta salad, based on her nonna’s cooking.
My nonna was a very modest woman who had the most beautiful skin. I loved spending time with her, and even though she only spoke the Sicilian dialect and I could hardly understand what she was saying, we always managed to have lengthy conversations. This full-flavoured pasta salad was one of her special dishes.
Parmesan was seen as a luxury at that time, so breadcrumbs made from the stale bread that every household had lying around were made into crisp croutons called pangrattato and used to finish pasta dishes.
Ingredients
1kg very ripe roma (plum) or vine-ripened tomatoes2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large pinch of saffron threads
3/4 cup (180ml) olive oil
3 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, torn
10 basil leaves, torn
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
250g spaghetti or short pasta (such as orecchiette, trofie or conchiglie)
Grated parmesan (optional), to serve
Pangrattato
1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
1 cup (70g) fine breadcrumbs, from day-old Italian bread (such as ciabatta or pasta dura)
2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
Preparation
For the pangrattato, heat the olive oil in small frying pan over medium heat for 1 minute. Add the breadcrumbs and stir for 2 minutes, or until golden. Stir through the parsley. Set aside.Remove and discard the eye of the tomatoes, then finely dice, keeping as much of the juice and seeds as possible.
Transfer the tomatoes to a bowl, then add the garlic, saffron, olive oil, parsley and basil. Season generously with salt and pepper. Cover with plastic film and leave the sauce in the fridge for at least 1 hour to allow the flavours to develop (you can prepare this 4–5 hours in advance if you like).
Cook the pasta in a large pan of salted boiling water until al dente, following the packet instructions.
Drain the pasta and transfer to a serving bowl. Pour over the tomato saffron sauce, mix well and sprinkle with pangrattato and parmesan, if using.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
If you enjoyed this Tomato and saffron pasta salad recipe then browse more Italian recipes, salad recipes, pasta recipes, easy recipes, quick recipes and our most popular hainanese chicken rice recipe.
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