Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes
This Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes recipe is a fantastic way to use an abundance of tomatoes all through the spring and summer months. The fact that the sauce requires no cooking is welcome news during hot weather. Simply put your sauce together and let marinate for several hours. When ready to eat, boil your pasta, add the marinated fresh tomatoes, and toss with some fresh grated Asiago cheese. Delicious and easy–my kind of summertime recipe!
My family first had this pasta years ago when my children were young. We were vacationing at the beach with some close friends and we prepared almost every meal ourselves since we had a house full of kids. That was no problem since all of the adults on the trip love to cook! My friend Michelle taught me how to put this fresh sauce together one morning before we headed down to the beach with the kids. She is a phenomenal cook, raised by an Italian family from Philadelphia. Everything she made was fresh and delicious, with simple ingredients and not a lot of prep or time involved. Michelle is also the person who introduced the Sauteed Red Peppers with Asiago appetizer to me.
When making this fresh tomato sauce, you are using only a handful of ingredients. Therefore, it is important that those ingredients are of good quality. It will make all the difference in the world if you have that mindset whenever you cook, but in particular when using just a few ingredients. Use a light flavorful olive oil, kosher salt, ground black pepper, fresh herbs and hand grated Asiago cheese.
Speaking of cheese, I always freshly grate my own cheeses! The preshredded versions purchased from the store are coated with a powdery substance that keep the strands seperate. Yuck! I don’t recommend ever using preshredded cheese. For the Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes, use a food processor to grate the cheese into a crumb like texture.
Feel free to use any long thin noodle you like for the pasta. I usually use either vermicelli or angel hair, but spaghetti or even linguini would be fine. Perfect dish for lunch or a light supper. Great with grilled chicken and a green salad!
Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 5 large tomatoes
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 Tbsp fresh parsley
- 2 Tbsp fresh basil or oregano
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1/3 cup grated Asiago cheese for serving
- 1 pound vermicelli or other long noodle pasta
Instructions
- Seed and finely chop tomatoes.
- Marinate with olive oil, fresh parsley, basil (or oregano), garlic powder, salt and pepper. Don't taste. Mixture should smell strong of garlic and herbs.
- Cover and marinate at least 2 hours or more, stirring each hour.
- While marinating over time, the tomatoes will release their juices into the sauce. After marinating, cook one pound of pasta in boiling salted water. Drain well and toss with the butter and a sprinkle more of salt. Combine immediately with tomato mixture. Before serving, grate cheese on top. Mangia!
