Simple Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce

Did you know you can make simple pasta sauce with sweet cherry or grape tomatoes? It's yummy and fresh. It's my favorite.

First, start boiling some noodles in salty water. These are fancy pappardelle noodles from Trader Joe's. Set your timer for 10 minutes to cook them al dente! While the noodles are cooking, start making your sauce. 

OOoo look. Pretty cherry tomatoes. I used about 3 handfuls and it made one serving. Works out for a single girl. BTW: Turns out you don't need to cut them like I did. They'll burst on their own in the pan. You can use diced roma tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes if you want to be normal.

In a wide pan, heat up some olive oil over med-high heat. Add a few cloves of minced garlic. Add some chili flakes if you like spice. I love spice. I added a lot of chili flakes.

Toss the tomatoes in the pan with the oil and garlic. I threw in some frozen peas for fun and color. And I like peas. Let them heat up and get fragrant. Add salt.

Once the tomatoes start getting mushy. Add some pasta water. The starchy pasta water makes the sauce thicker.

Let it simmer simmer simmer.

Keep simmering on medium heat until it's all mushy and delicious. I guess this is about 10 minutes. Add a bit of butter at this point to make the sauce silky smooth. You could also throw in a few leaves of fresh basil to make it basil-y.

Drain your noodles and throw them into the pan. Toss them in the sauce so that they soak up the flavor.

Put it all on a plate and top with some grated parmesan! 

I'm hungry now.

Easy to read steps:

• boil noodles.
• heat olive oil in a large pan on medium high heat.
• lightly brown garlic and chili flakes. 
• add tomatoes, peas, and salt.
• simmer on medium heat until tomatoes burst and get soft.
• add a 1/4 cup of pasta water to the sauce.
• simmer until it gets thicker.
• add some butter and herbs.
• drain noodles and add them to sauce mixture. toss together until incorporated.
• serve with parmesan

Blasted Veggies!

Want a veggie side dish?

This way of making veggies is super easy and tasty. You just roast them and they get crispy/tender and flavorful.

I originally got a recipe for blasted broccoli here. Then I realized you can also do this with carrots, squash, zucchini... basically any veggie that is kind of tough.

I like doing this to brussel sprouts too, but I blanch (boil for 2 minutes) the brussel sprouts beforehand to take the bitterness out.

Ingredients

• vegetable of choice
• olive oil
• salt
• chili flakes (optional).

Directions

1. Set your oven to 500 degrees or broil.
2. Wash and cut up your veggie of choice into bite-size pieces. 
3. Pat dry. If you use watery veggies, they wont get crispy in the oven.
4. Toss the dry veggies in olive oil and some salt. Optional: Add chili flakes for spice!
5. Arrange the veggies on a baking sheet. Make sure each piece has room. Crowding them together means less crispy edges..
6. Stick it in the oven on the top rack for 8-10 minutes or so until they are browned. They should smell almost burnt and yummy.