Bucatini Pasta with Water Buffalo Mozzarella
Ingredients Filling
- 100 gms bucatini
- 250 gms of Mozzarella di Bufala 150 gr roughly broken 100 gr cut into slices, one per serving
- 5 Yellow or red peppers
- 250 gms Italian tomato pulp
- 50 gms breadcrumbs
- 20 gms fresh basil
- 60 gms pitted black olives
- 40 gms capers
- 1 clove of garlic
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- 400gr tomato sauce
Ingredients Tomato Sauce
- 3 garlic cloves
- 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 kg canned Italian plum tomatoes
- salt & pepper
Method
Halve the peppers and deseed. Roast them in a hot oven or under the grill to be well cooked, let them rest in a sealed plastic bag, when cool peel them and divide them into strips
Filling
Chop and lightly sauté the garlic in two tablespoons of olive oil, remove from the heat before they brown, add the tomato pulp, the chopped olives, capers and half the basil, roughly torn. Cook for around 7 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and then add the 150gms of roughly chopped mozzarella and the remainder of the basil.
Meanwhile cook the bucatini in plenty of salted and peppered water, cook until "al dente", drain.
While the bucatini is cooking, grease 4 timbals with oil and dust them with the bread crumbs and line them with the strips of pepper. Then systematically, working from the bottom up, pack the bucatini into the sides of the timbal pushing it into the peppers (work as if you were lining the timbal with pastry). Spoon the filling into the centre and finish in a 180 degree C oven for 10 minutes.
Turn out of the moulds and top with a slice of buffalo mozzarella and return to the oven until the mozzarella begins to melt. Serve very hot with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and the tomato sauce served hot on the plate.
Tomato Sauce
Crush the garlic and heat with the oil in a saucepan until garlic becomes translucent, fresh herbs can be added if you wish. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 45 minutes, the sauce should become quite thick. Purée the mix and season with salt and pepper also