Do you have a lot of cherry tomatoes? We do!
We’ve put them in salads.
We’ve sauteed them with spinach.
We’ve used them in the fresh lemon, rotini and grape tomato recipe — after all they’re about as sweet as the grape tomatoes. We’ve nibbled on them like grapes.
We just didn’t know what we were going to do with all of them — they were producing faster than we were able to consume them.
Well . . . . we found the perfect solution in the August/September 2005 issue of Fine Cooking. [Yes, I do have issues that old. ]
We could make a quick and easy pasta sauce and use up two pounds of cherry tomatoes.
The recipe starts off with gently warming olive oil in a deep pan and sweating the garlic in the oil. We watch the garlic carefully because we don’t want it to brown. While the garlic is in the oil we halve the cherry tomatoes.
Once the garlic is nice and soft and the oil is infused with flavor we add 1 teaspoon of hot pepper flakes and give it a quick stir. After a brief saute we add the halved tomatoes, the oregano and thyme with the salt and pepper.
We turn up the heat again and bring the sauce to a lively simmer and let it cook for 15 to 20 minutes.
The sauce will end up being thick and pulpy. We remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle in the basil. We stir to combine thoroughly. Tonight we decided to serve our Cherry Tomato sauce with orecchiette.
This method of making sauce from cherry tomatoes is so quick and easy, and the zingy acidity of the cherry tomatoes means the sauce can reach full flavor in no time at all. Meaty red Romas make a wonderful sauce, but it takes cooking them a long time in order for them to reach an optimum flavored sauce. This basic recipe has several variations that I’ll post at a later date. But don’t limit this sauce to just pasta, it’s tasty over sausages, fish, pork chops, or chicken. You can even use it as a topping for pizza.
Fresh Tomato and Basil Sauce with Orecchiette
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried orecchiette { or your preferred pasta} cook until al dente
- 3 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 large cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 pounds cherry tomatoes rinsed and halved
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt; more to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon fresh oregano
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves from about one small bunch very thinly sliced
Instructions
- In a 10- or 11-inch saute pan, heat the oil and garlic over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is softened but not browned, about 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle in the red pepper flakes and saute for about 1 minute.
- Add the tomatoes, salt, and pepper, oregano and thyme. Toss gently to coat and then raise the heat to medium. Simmer, stirring occasionally and adjusting the heat to maintain a lively but not too vigorous simmer, until the tomatoes have been reduced to a thick, pulpy sauce, 15 to 20 minutes.
- Sprinkle on the basil and stir to combine thoroughly.
- Toss the pasta with three-quarters of the sauce and spoon the remaining sauce over each of the servings. If you like, sprinkle with cheese like a Parmesan, Romano or Pecorino -- whatever you like.
Nutrition
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