Tomato Tomatoe

Summer Cherry Tomato Pasta

The best recipes are often made using high quality and seasonal ingredients. Coming from an Italian background, I was taught from a young age that homemade pasta sauce is something that every Italian cook should master. During the summer when tomatoes are at their peak, I make it my mission to make tomato sauce using fresh tomatoes from the garden. The taste is truly unmatched to crushed tomatoes from a can. It’s a moment that I wait for all year. The sweet vine ripened tomatoes are one of life’s greatest joys. I especially love making tomato sauce using cherry tomatoes. They’re sweeter than large tomatoes and I find them less acidic. While I was travelling in Puglia, I noticed that many of the pastas were very simple and often times used cherry tomatoes. This sauce is very simple and because it’s so simple you want to make sure you are using the best quality ingredients like organic cherry tomatoes, organic garlic, organic basil and extra virgin olive oil. This sauce takes about 10-15 minutes to make and it’s one of the greatest things you could ever make during the summer. I can’t stress enough how easy and delicious this sauce is. I could eat pounds of this pasta sauce, it’s that good! I like pairing this sauce with orecchiette as this is what they do in Puglia. The sauce freezes well and it’s a great way to capture the essence of summer!

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Summer Cherry Tomato Pasta

Ingredients

• 1 box orecchiette
• 4 cups fresh organic cherry tomatoes
• 4 cloves garlic sliced thin
• 1/4 tsp chili flakes
• 1 handful of fresh organic basil
• extra virgin olive oil
• 4 tbsp grass fed butter
• Parmigiano Reggiano
• pasta water

Directions

1. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and slice the garlic as thin as possible.
2. Add a healthy drizzle of olive oil to a large pan (about 5-6 tbsp) and add the garlic and chili flakes. Turn the pan on low and once the garlic becomes fragrant (this should take a few minutes), add the cherry tomatoes. Season with salt and let the tomatoes cook down on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.
3. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook for 2 minutes less than what the package says. While the pasta is halfway through cooking, remove 1 cup of pasta water.
4. While the pasta cooks, add in torn basil leaves to the sauce. Taste for seasoning. Add in 1/2 a cup of pasta water and let the sauce thicken. Add the drained pasta water and butter. Add more pasta water if the sauce is too thick. Cook this for a few minutes until the sauce comes together.
5. Off the heat grate in fresh Parmigiano Reggiano.