The base of this recipe is the most traditional Neapolitan tomato sauce: the Pommarola, which is a slowly cooked velvet pomodoro sauce.
For this recipe you have to remove skin and seeds and use just the flesh.

Starting from this base I propose you other 2 great variants:
- Salsa al Pomodoro Piccante (Hot Chilli Pepper Tomato Sauce)
- Tomato Sauce Spaghetti Nests with Eggplant Rolls...if you like to surprise your friends with your Italian cooking Skills!!!!

Suggested pasta: traditionally used for spaghetti and maccheroni, that in English is often a generic name for pasta, but it is really a kind of pasta as long as a little finger, usually striped.

Serve 6
Ingredients:

- 2 large cans of peeled Roma (plum) tomatoes ( ar. 3,5 lb) or ar 7.7 lb of fresh roma tomato*
- 20 whole leaves of fresh basil
- 1 tsp or raw sugar (flat)
- 1 tsp of salt (flat)
- 6 Tbs of extra virgin olive oil
- 6 Tbs of parmesan cheese

How to procede:
1) Prepare your tomatoes.
if you are using fresh tomatoes, put on the stove a deep small pot and when the water boils, through in the tomatoes, 2-3 per time. Leave 1 minute and then take them out with a spoon. Put on a cutting board, cut in half, remove the skin (that is now coming at once, very easily) and all the seeds and the inside part. save the flesh and put into blender and cream it.

If you are using caned tomatoes, open the can, and put the juice in a bowl and the tomatoes in a colander. Rinse them and drain the inside liquid and the seed, put the flesh and the juice you have in the bowl into a blender and cream it.

2) Put the tomatoes already peeled, creamed and with no seeds into a casserole, low flame, half covered and add half of the basil (whole leaves). Stir often until the sauce has a smooth and creamy look**: you have made a Pommarola and you can use the sauce as it is to dress your spaghetti, just adding the 6 tbs of fresh extra virgin olive oil the rest of the basil and parmesan cheese.

The Pommarola is a sauce traditionally served poured on top of pasta, which is not sauté together with the sauce in the pan. This is to preserve its velevet aspect. On a serving bowl put the drained hot pasta, add the raw extra virgin olive oil, mix, poor the pommarola on top, the Parmesan and the remaining leaves of basil. Be fast, hot is nicer!

*Tips:
* consider that when fresh tomatoes are not really nice and mature it is better to use caned tomatoes. The amount of fresh tomatoes really depends by the kind of tomato (more juicy, more firm..)

** for other kind of tomato sauce the right texture is when, passing your spoon on the pen, the sauce stay separate. The pommarola has a more velvet look and it is moister. To understand the right point you can pick a table spoon of sauce and put on a white dish: sauce is perfectly cooked when around the solid creamy part you do not have an ³halo² of water

Buon Appetito!

Wine combination: Steve¹s suggestions
A Chianti, either Chianti classicio or Chianti sienese would be great with this

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Variant 1: Salsa al Pomodoro Piccante (Hot Chili Pepper Tomato Sauce)   Suggested pasta: spaghetti, short pasta, no egg pasta Serve 6 Ingredients: - 2 large cans of peeled Roma (plum) tomatoes ( ar. 3,5 lb) or ar 7.7 lb of fresh roma tomato* - 20 whole leaves of fresh basil - 2 cloves of garlic - hot chily pepper (as hot as you like) - 1 tsp or raw sugar (flat) - 1 tsp of salt (flat) - 6 Tbs of extra virgin olive oil - 6 Tbs of parmesan cheese 1) Proceed making the pommarola as above, then press 2 large cloves of garlic in a pan and add the 6 Tbs of extra virgin olive oil. Sauté the garlic low flame for half minute, add the hot chilli pepper (s) and sauté until garlic has a nice golden look...but do not burn it...it gets bitter! Leave covered for half hour. Filter the olive oil on a fine strainer and warm it up. Add the pommarola until it has the nice flavour of garlic and chilli. 2) Cook you pasta al dente in salt water (spaghetti, short pasta, no egg pasta or tagliatelle), drain and sauté for a couple of minutes into the sauce. Buon Appetito!

Variant 2: Tomato Sauce Spaghetti Nests with Eggplant Roll Using the salsa di pomodoro Piccante as a base, prepare the most good-looking dish of the summer...and the most tasty! Tomato Sauce Spaghetti Nests with Eggplant Rolls. Suggested pasta: spaghetti serve 4 Ingredients: - 8 slices of grilled eggplant (if the slices are small and you need to overlap two of them to make a roll, consider the double) - 8 slices of fresh mozzarella cheese - 8 slice of fresh tomato - 1 Tbs oregano - 1/2 cup parmesan cheese - 5 Tbs extra virgin olive oil - 1 tsp salt 1) Slice a large eggplant by the length ( 1/3 of an inch think) Grill the eggplants and put them on a cutting board. You have to have slices big enough to be rolled, if they are too small overlap two of them. 2) Put at the bottom of the grilled eggplant, 1 slice of mozzarella (1/3 of an inch) and a slice of tomato (1/3 of an inch) divided in 2 pieces. Sprinkle with oregano and roll. 3) Pour the olive oil in a baking pan and lay the rolls close each other so that they hold together. Sprinkle salt and the Parmesan cheese. Bake for 25 min at 370°F and leave to cool down into the oven for 20 min. In case the juice is not completely reduced, put the pan on the stove and reduce to have just 1/2 inch of juice on the bottom of the pan. Broil the top before serving. 4) Cook the pasta and when done, sauté it into the spicy tomato sauce. Make a 'nest' of spaghetti on each dish and put on each nest 2 eggplant rolls. You need just a salad and a dessert to complete your dinner. We look forward to have you here with us. Buon Appetito!