Recipe: Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce

Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce 

Ingredients

• 2 pints of fresh cherry tomatoes 
• 1 bunch of fresh basil
• 1-2 cloves of fresh garlic
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 pound box of pasta, your choice (my favorites for this are penne, rigatoni, or mezze rigatoni)
• Salt and pepper, to taste 
• Reserved pasta water

Instructions

1. Rinse and dry cherry tomatoes and basil.
2. Cut cherry tomatoes in half (or quarters for larger cherry tomatoes).
3. Peel garlic cloves and crush slightly – you don’t want to completely smash the cloves!
4. Pour abundant extra virgin olive oil into your pan – cover the bottom fully and generously. 
5. Brown garlic on medium heat, moving around occasionally and flipping to brown evenly on both sides. Watch it carefully so as not to let it burn! 
6. If you like, you can remove and discard garlic once it has browned, or you may leave it in to continue cooking with tomatoes.
7. Remove pan from heat and add cut cherry tomatoes. Be careful and go slowly, using your splatter guard as the mixture of tomato juices with olive oil will splatter and can burn. Adding tomatoes in batches will cause less splattering. 
8. Put the pan back on the heat to medium. 
9. Stir the tomatoes and crush them with your cooking spoon to start releasing juices. 
10. Add salt and pepper to taste, mix well, continuing to crush tomatoes, then partially cover with a saucepan lid. 
11. Put on a timer for 20 minutes, stirring and crushing regularly as the tomatoes cook down. 
12. While tomatoes are cooking, chop up a generous handful of fresh basil (choose the amount to your taste) and set aside. 
13. Start boiling your pasta water in a large pot. When it comes to a boil, add a generous tablespoon of salt to the water. 
14. Check the cooking time left on your sauce timer against how long your pasta variety needs to cook for. Make sure to time appropriately so that the moment your pasta is cooked, your sauce is ready to add. You don’t want to let your cooked pasta sit without sauce or it will all stick together!
15. When you’re ready to cook your pasta, keep water at a rolling boil, add the pound of pasta to the water, stir well with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking, and set your timer based on the cooking time listed on the box. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. 
16. When the sauce has cooked for 20 minutes, add chopped basil and mix in. Remove from heat. If you left the garlic cloves in, you will want to fish them out and discard them now. 
17. When your pasta is “al dente” (still has a slight bite to it but is not too hard to chew), remove the pasta pot from heat.
18. Working quickly, use a small ladle to reserve a few ladles of pasta water in a small glass bowl. 
19. Drain the rest of the water and add pasta to your serving bowl. 
20. Using your ladle, add some reserved pasta water to the cooked tomatoes. Add in stages, stirring in between each addition until you reach desired sauce consistency. You do not want it to be soupy, just liquid enough to spread the tomatoes throughout the pound of pasta. This sauce is supposed to be dryer than a canned tomato sauce, so you should only need 2 small ladles of water, max. 
21. Add sauce to the bowl of pasta – not all at once but in spoonfuls, mixing throughout. If you have some left and the pasta is all coated, you can always top each bowl you serve with a little extra!
22. Add some fresh basil on top of your serving if you like and mangia!

Enjoy!