Usually, once we’re looking for a brand new pasta recipe, we flip to our Italian culinary icons. Stanley Tucci has proven us the magic of a no-cook summer season sauce and the “life-changing” Spaghetti alla Nerano he found on the Amalfi Coast. Giada De Laurentiis has satisfied us to experiment with White Pesto and taught us the last word sick-day spaghetti soup recipe for once we’re feeling underneath the climate. We’ve even realized the key to an ideal Sunday gravy from the Italian grandma behind Netflix’s “Nonnas.”
But just lately, we came across a pasta preparation made well-known by a special sort of icon—one from the golden age of Hollywood: Elizabeth Taylor. And earlier than even twirling our first forkful, we all know we’re going to fall for it. Her life was crammed with glamour, and even her easiest meals had a contact of it.
Elizabeth Taylor’s Favorite Pasta Dish
Elizabeth Taylor might maintain her personal within the kitchen, however her signature spaghetti wasn’t created there. Instead, she discovered this pasta in Portofino.
Taylor’s love affair with the Italian Riviera was legendary. Portofino was the place she spent a number of honeymoons and the place Richard Burton proposed to her in 1964 (for the primary time). During her stays, she typically checked into the glamorous Splendido Hotel, a hilltop retreat that hosted lots of the period’s greatest stars, from Grace Kelly to Charlie Chaplin.
While Taylor’s style in jewellery and vogue was famously opulent, her style in meals was mentioned to be surprisingly easy. Like her buddy Audrey Hepburn, she liked one timeless Italian dinner above all others: spaghetti with tomato sauce.
So, when she visited the Splendido, the resort’s govt chef, Corrado Corti, created a dish in her honor: Spaghetti alla Elizabeth Taylor. Unfussy but undeniably fabulous, it was a chic twist on a traditional spaghetti pomodoro—designed for a star, however liked by everybody fortunate sufficient to attempt it.
How to Make Spaghetti alla Elizabeth Taylor
The recipe—which continues to be served on the Splendido and shared by the Belmond luxury hotel group—calls for 3 sorts of tomatoes and layers a definite preparation of every: Datterini for sweetness, San Marzano for physique and richness, and contemporary cherry tomatoes for brightness. This creates a dynamic taste and construction you simply don’t get from a fast sauce.
If you’ll be able to’t discover Datterini, any small, candy tomato will work. But in Italy, the actual factor is treasured for its low acidity and naturally intense taste.
Also, not like most pasta sauces, that are primarily developed on the stovetop, a lot of this one’s magic occurs within the oven. It begins with Datterini tomatoes roasted at a low temperature for 3 hours with thyme, brown sugar, lemon zest, and sea salt. The sluggish roast transforms the tomatoes right into a wealthy, caramelized tomato confit that takes the sauce’s taste to a completely new stage.
