It’s that time of year again when we finally start getting good tomatoes at the farmers market. This week, I chose a variety of heirloom cherry tomatoes and made this simple pasta. The key to a good sauce is the emulsion from the combination of pasta water and olive oil. If done properly, they combine and coat each strand of pasta rather than just creating a broth.
Spaghetti with Cherry Tomatoes
1/2 package spaghetti
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cups cherry tomatoes
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/4 cup white wine
1 cup basil, torn into pieces
1/2 cup grated parmesan
Cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling, salted water according to package instructions but stop 1 minute short of the cooking time.
Meanwhile, saute the garlic in half the olive oil for 1 minute but don’t let it brown. Add the cherry tomatoes and season with some salt.
Saute for a couple minutes until the tomatoes start to crack open. Add a little pasta water and the wine and reduce down. Add in the spaghetti for the last minute to cook together. Off the heat, add the basil and parmesan and the remaining olive oil and toss. I like to let it sit together off the heat for a minute before plating, it seems to let everything meld together.
That looks fantastic. Do cherry tomatoes get sweeter if you bake them? I know that sounds like a stupid question, but I don’t really like the taste of raw tomatoes.
I wish I did because they are so beautiful!
Yes, as you cook them the sugars in them can almost caramelize and make them sweeter. The slower and longer you cook them, the more that can happen. Cherry tomatoes are relatively sweet to start with though, you might like them more than full sized tomatoes.