Pasta with Raw Tomato Sauce (Salsa Tomatish) Algerian Style

This photo was taken a while back, maybe last year or two years ago. If you live near a Middle Eastern market you might be able to find very good to cheap prices on vine ripened tomatoes. Prices at farmer's markets can be very good too, of course.

I'm not including a photo of the dish with this post. I assume that most readers know what raw tomato sauce on top of pasta looks like. Maybe I'll insert a photo later after I come back from the market.

This is a fast, easy and healthy recipe. If you decide to use one of the optional garnishes I suggest adding them on top of tomato rather than tossing for presentation purposes.

The basic recipe is simple, fast and delicious especially at the height of tomato season. The only thing you have to cook is the pasta. I prefer freshly made durum semolina wheat pasta bound with eggs for this dish, however I rarely make my own pasta at home. So I usually use packaged spaghetti.

Obviously the quality of tomatoes matters a great deal for such a simple dish. The tomatoes can be prepped as concassé (peeled, seeded and chopped), grated against the largest holes of a box grater (discard skin) or simply chopped with the skin intact. Season tomatoes with salt, finely minced garlic, basil or thyme and extra-virgin olive oil. Perhaps you've noticed that I often call for salt only in my recipes and not salt and pepper. Pepper is used as spice in Algerian cooking and it's not an automatic addition to savory dishes. If you don't like bits of garlic in the sauce make garlic olive oil and strain the oil into the sauce. Cover and refrigerate the tomatoes while preparing the pasta. The uncooked tomato sauce can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated overnight. Toss the salsa tomatish with cooked hot pasta.

Optional garnishes include:

1. Very thinly sliced batarekh (bottarga)*
2. Bay scallops with preserved lemon citronette
3. Dersa marinated shrimp (omit mahonais)
4. Tuna skabetch
5. Olive oil poached tuna**, black oil cured olives and capers
6. Very thinly sliced or julienned fresh fennel bulb
7. In Algeria we make a fresh feta-type cheese. I've found a similar one at an Armenian market labeled "fresh Bulgarian feta".
8. A non-Algerian touch is grated ricotta salata

There are many more variations but I'll stop here for now.

*Algerian batarekh is not available in the States. I use an Italian brand I buy at Mario's deli on Broadway in Glendale, California

**Olive oil braised or poached tuna is an Algerian specialty that's a versatile basic ingredient to have on hand. If you like olive oil packed tuna, you'll love olive oil poached tuna. The finished product is not oily at all, it's actually very light and clean tasting.

Comments

[Nadia]

Try to make your own pasta with a pasta machine, it doesn't take much time and it's delicious. I make my own rechta and fettutine and other pastas as well and believe me you'll see the difference.