Aglione Sauce
A garlicky tomato sauce straight from Southern Tuscany.
Ingredients
- 1 batch homemade pici pasta
- 3 oz purple garlic (6-8 large cloves) or elephant garlic (3-4 cloves)
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ⅓ cup white wine
- 1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes
- 1 tsp salt
- pinch red pepper flakes optional
Instructions
- Peel the garlic, leaving the cloves whole. Lightly smash the cloves with the back of your knife to help release the aroma but do not chop it.
- Add the garlic and olive oil to a large skillet and set over low heat. Gently cook until the garlic is fragrant, pale golden and soft, being careful not to brown the garlic (5 minutes or so). The key to this sauce is to cook the garlic very slowly at a low temperature, turning the harsh garlic flavor into a sweet one. Add the red pepper flakes if using and cook for 30 seconds or so.
- Add the white wine and let cook for another two minutes until the alcohol has burned off.
- Add the canned tomatoes and salt and bring up to a simmer. Gently simmer the aglione sauce, breaking up the tomatoes with the back of your spoon from time to time for about 1 hour. The agione sauce should reduce with the cooking time, resulting in a nice and thick sauce. If for any reason the aglione sauce becomes overly thick and starts sticking to the bottom of the pan, add ¼ cup of water and continue cooking, uncovered.
- Season for salt and with an immersion blender, blend until smooth. You can also do this with a blender after the aglione sauce has cooled down.
- Cook the pici pasta in a very large pot of salted, boiling water. Save about ½ cup of starchy water before draining.
- Drain well and dress with the aglione sauce. If you find the pici all’aglione too dry, add a bit of the pasta cooking water to help loosen things lol up.
Notes
- The most important step is to slowly soften the garlic without letting it burn. Burnt garlic is awful and your aglione sauce will consequently be so too!
- You can preserve aglione sauce by either freezing or canning it. Consider doubling or tripling the recipe and preserving the aglione sauce in individual portions for one pound of pasta, making for easy weeknight meals.
- You can cook aglione for more or less time, if need be. The longer you cook it, the richer tasting it will be. If you have less time, no worries, you can cook it just the same but may find the garlic taste sticks in your mouth a bit more.
- If you are pinched for time, help break down the canned tomatoes by pouring them into a large bowl and crush them with your hands before adding to the pan.
- Always remember to save a bit of starchy water from when you cook your pasta in case you need to ‘loosen-up’ your aglione sauce a little bit.
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