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Good morning friends, I hope that you are well. How is your week? Are you staying cool? It is a scorcher here this week and I am trying to limit my time outside. At the same time I want to enjoy summer, in a few short weeks it will be Fall. Can you believe it?
Our neighbor’s are on holiday for a few more days and we are still harvesting and eating a lot of tomatoes and other produce from their garden. This week I made the easiest pasta sauce, it is not really a recipe, it is simply tomatoes and garlic cooked and served over your favorite pasta. I am sure you probably have your own “recipe” and if you do please share it.
Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil
4-5 cloves of garlic crushed
pinch of red pepper flakes
28 oz. fresh tomatoes, cut in half(if cherry)
splash of balsamic vinegar(optional)
pepper to taste
fresh basil leaves
freshly grated parmesan
In a medium sauce pan heat the olive oil, as soon as the oil is hot add the minced garlic, let cook for a few seconds, then add the red pepper flakes. Immediately add the tomatoes and their juices, stir well, I like to add a splash of balsamic vinegar at this point and let the mixture cook for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper and cook for a few more minutes. Add the torn basil leaves then taste the sauce, add more salt or pepper to suit your taste. Add a sprinkle of cheese and enjoy.
NOTE: I am not a professional chef, nor am I Italian so please do not comment about this not being an authentic sauce. I am simply using what I have, feel free to use the tomatoes that you have, if you are using Roma tomatoes then cut into 3/4″ chunks. The sauce is simply a way to use whatever you have on hand or have an abundance of.
I like the sauce chunky but you can cook it down more for a smoother sauce if you like.
Serve over your favorite pasta.
When preparing the pasta add a large handful of kosher salt to the water you will be boiling your noodles in, this is a tip from my friend Elizabeth from The Vintage Contessa and it makes all the difference in the world to the flavor of the pasta.
I hope that you have a wonderful day! Stay safe and stay cool.
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I really enjoy your type of 'sauce' Elizabeth – more like Roman 'checca'. I use a recipe I've had since 1992 (torn from a magazine!) every summer when the freshest local tomatoes are available.
Here's a description of checca for those not familiar perhaps –
Checca sauce is an uncooked tomato sauce used with pasta. Pasta alla checca is an Italian pasta dish using fresh, uncooked tomatoes, basil, fresh mozzarella, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper, typically prepared in the summer with fresh ripe tomatoes.
But today I'm making regular cooked spaghetti sauce – and admitting I'm opening a couple of jars of arrabbiata sauce from Trader Joe's! This is my gift to Bob – spaghetti and meatballs with Italian sausage – made now only about every 4-6 months because I just don't prepare meat dishes! He's so good about eating vegetarian and fish dishes, but every now and then hints how much he'd love a 'real spaghetti' dish!!!!!
Looks like you used linguine – my favorite pasta along with penne rigate!
This week I've made bowls of Panzanella bread and tomato salad twice! I can live on that once the good fresh tomatoes appear!
Your neighbor's tomatoes look awesome – hope they stay gone for a while yet!
Hugs – Mary