This is the pasta I make when I can’t be bothered thinking about dinner but still want it to feel special. There’s nothing clever here. You need good tomatoes, plenty of olive oil, a bit of patience with the sauce, and burrata torn over the top just before it goes to the table.
The trick is to let the burrata melt a little into the hot sauce. You end up with creamy, milky pockets running through the tomato, and honestly that’s the best part. Use ziti if you can find it, but rigatoni or penne work just as well.
Serves: 4 · Prep: 10 minutes · Cook: 40 minutes
Ingredients
- 400 g ziti (or rigatoni)
- 80 ml (⅓ cup) extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to finish
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 small brown onion, finely diced
- ½ tsp chilli flakes (optional)
- 2 x 400 g tins whole peeled tomatoes (Italian if you can)
- 250 g cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 tsp sugar, only if your tomatoes are sharp
- A big handful of basil leaves, some torn and some left whole
- 2 balls of burrata (about 250 g in total), at room temperature
- Sea salt and cracked black pepper
Method
- Start the sugo. Warm the olive oil in a wide, heavy pan over medium-low heat. Add the onion with a pinch of salt and cook gently for 8 minutes, until soft and sweet but not coloured. Add the garlic and chilli and cook for another minute.
- Add the tomatoes. Tip in the tinned tomatoes and crush them with a wooden spoon. Add the cherry tomatoes and a few torn basil leaves. Simmer gently for 25–30 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce is thick and glossy and the oil starts to pool on top. Taste it and add salt, plus the sugar if it needs it.
- Cook the pasta. Meanwhile, bring a big pot of water to the boil and salt it well (it should taste like the sea). Cook the pasta for 2 minutes less than the packet says. Scoop out a mug of the pasta water before you drain it.
- Bring it together. Tip the pasta into the sauce with a good splash of the pasta water. Toss over the heat for 1–2 minutes until the sauce clings to every piece. Stir through the rest of the torn basil.
- Finish with burrata. Spoon into warm bowls. Tear the burrata into chunks and dot it over the top. Finish with a few whole basil leaves, a drizzle of your best olive oil and plenty of cracked pepper.
Tips
- Take the burrata out of the fridge 30 minutes before serving. Fridge-cold burrata won’t melt into the sauce the way you want.
- Don’t skip the pasta water. It’s what turns the sauce silky instead of watery.
- The sugo keeps for 4 days in the fridge and freezes beautifully, so I usually make a double batch.
