Fresh tomato sauce and basil gnocchi

Potato gnocchi can be prepared up to 3 days in advance. You can find the information you need in the gnocchi with blue cheese (gorgonzola) recipe.

Remember: if they are stored in the freezer, dip them straight into boiling salted water, a few at a time, so the water never loses its boil.

The tomato and basil sauce can be prepared in advance: you can store it in the fridge for up to a couple of days or in the freezer; in this case, defrost before use.

The choice of raw materials is the basis for a good result:

Do not use just any tomato, make sure they have the characteristics we indicated above.

Do not use dried seasoning herbs!

Do not let the onion and garlic burn, as this will give your sauce an unpleasant taste.

Do not overcook the gnocchi: remove them as soon as they come to the surface.

If you want you can keep some tomato and basil sauce in the fridge: store it in an airtight container for no more than a couple of days.

You can also freeze the sauce, placing it in food bags or in an airtight container; you can even use ice cube trays, this way you will have small amounts of sauce ready to use.

You can also use tomato skins: dry them in an oven at 80° for about 2 hours, then chop them up and keep them to add flavour to your dishes.

If some gnocchi are leftover gnocchi and already seasoned with the tomato sauce, keep them in the fridge for the next day; warm them in a pan with a little extra virgin olive oil. Or you could regenerate them in the oven at 190° with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese until au gratin and the cheese turns golden.

Tomato and basil sauce is perhaps the best-known sauce in the Italian culinary tradition, and, like all simple recipes, it owes its success to the choice of ingredients and an attention to detail.

Choose tomatoes that are fresh and fragrant, ripe but firm. The best qualities are the tasty Ramati and San Marzano that have the right sweetness and amount of water to make a perfect sauce. In Italy we have many different qualities of tomatoes, so choose those that have the same characteristics as the Ramati and San Marzano.

The best time to make sauce with fresh tomatoes is in summer, when the fruits reach the right stage of ripeness.

If you do not have ripe and fragrant tomatoes, add a little tomato paste.

In the winter months it is better to use canned peeled tomatoes, choosing a high-quality product with no ingredients other than Italian tomatoes.

Basil is the tomato sauce aromatic herb par excellence; you can also replace it with fresh marjoram or oregano for a different but still pleasant aroma. If you want to intensify the scent of the herbs, add a little at the beginning with the extra virgin olive oil and onion.

It is up to you to decide, based on your taste, whether to complete the dish with a sprinkling of cheese: choose between the classic Parmesan cheese or a salted ricotta or another hard cheese.

In this recipe we are using tomato and basil sauce for the gnocchi but in Italian tradition it is used for many types of pasta, dry like spaghetti or fresh, whether egg tagliatelle or other favourite shapes.