The Super-Easy Pasta Dish Audrey Hepburn Ate Once a Week

Audrey Hepburn's Spaghetti al Pomodoro

When you think of Audrey Hepburn, the words classic and timeless often come to mind. The same could be said of her favorite pasta dish, Spaghetti al Pomodoro.

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And thanks to the icon's son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer, and his 2005 book Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit, we have the recipe for and the story behind her famous pasta dish. According to Sean, his mom ate pasta at least once a day and would eat this spaghetti "swimming" in homemade chunky tomato sauce once a week.

With a testimonial like that from an absolute icon, how could I not give it a try? Here's what happened when I tried the recipe in my own kitchen.

Get the recipe: Audrey Hepburn's Spaghetti al Pomodoro

Ingredients for Audrey Hepburn's Spaghetti al Pomodoro

Don't be intimidated by the thought of making homemade sauce—it's really quite simple. For Audrey's recipe, you're going to need onions, carrots and celery as well as garlic. You'll also need to pick up two cans of peeled tomatoes, basil, spaghetti, olive oil, salt and pepper and Parmigiano-Reggiano.

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How to Make Audrey Hepburn's Spaghetti al Pomodoro

Start by chopping the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic. Add that to a pot with the tomatoes and drizzle in some olive oil. Add some of the basil to the pot and bring the sauce to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes, or until the veggies are tender and you can easily break apart the tomatoes with a spoon.

While the sauce is simmering, bring a pot of salted water to a boil for the pasta. Once it comes to a boil, salt and cook the spaghetti Audrey-style: “cooked barely al dente (still a tiny bit of snap at the core)” as noted in Sean's book.

Take the remaining basil and cut the leaves into small pieces using a pair of scissors and set aside (using scissors instead of a knife will keep you from bruising the delicate leaves).

Taste the sauce and season with salt to taste. Serve the pasta with lots of sauce, some grated Parm and the remaining basil.

What I Thought of Audrey Hepburn's Spaghetti al Pomodoro

My upstairs neighbor sent me a text while I was making this dish and informed me that she was taking up the saxophone and to let her know if it was too noisy. What would have made others roll their eyes in annoyance actually made me smile so big as, minutes later, the perfect backdrop of "Fly Me to the Moon"—a classic Sinatra tune—wafted faintly into my kitchen as I was chopping onions for the homemade sauce. (Come to find out, Audrey Hepburn and Frank Sinatra knew each other quite well in the 1950s, so Abby, you couldn't have planned your foray into sax playing at a better time.)

Audrey's son says that she believed the color combinations on your plate were important and this dish delivers in its bright orange from the carrots, deep red from the tomatoes and vibrant green from the late-summer basil still growing on my windowsill.

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I followed the recipe exactly—down to the seriously al dente pasta. It was wonderful. I lit some taper candles, put on my pearls and twirled my way through every tomatoey strand until my bowl was clean. The chunky sauce was bright, hearty and warm, with a bite from the grated cheese and a fresh perfume from the torn basil coming through in every bite.

This was the easiest dinner to make, was cost-effective, and didn't require any babysitting on the stove. To be honest, chopping the vegetables was the hardest part.

The dish is elegant enough to have for date night with a glass of wine on the weekend, but is simple enough for a weeknight dinner with the kiddos. As Audrey once said, "I believe, every day, you should have at least one exquisite moment." And this pasta was today's moment.

Tips for Making Audrey Hepburn's Spaghetti al Pomodoro

1. Quality matters. In the book, Sean says his mother taught him that the secret to wonderful Italian food came from quality ingredients, so I hunted down the best I could find. I used Partanna extra virgin olive oil, Whole Foods 365 brand spaghetti and organic Organico Bello tomatoes imported from Italy. Buon appetito!

2. Timing is everything. If you can, cook the pasta and the sauce at the same time (you'll need two big pots going on the stove). If you time it right, you won't have cold spaghetti waiting to be sauced.

3. Get creative with the leftovers. If you have leftover sauce, do what I did and use it as a base for a delicious shakshuka the next morning alongside crusty bread. All you need to do is just add some cumin, chili powder and paprika to the sauce, then poach a few eggs into the bubbling sauce.

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