It's How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week: Make a No Cook Pasta Sauce

For years I turned my nose up at the idea of no-cook pasta sauce. I'm not sure why I was so uninterested in sauce of this type, but for some reason I had it in my mind that you needed to cook tomatoes to make a flavorful pasta sauce. Was I ever wrong about that! This sauce ranked right up there with Bacon and Tomato Sandwiches as one of the best tasting things I've made with fresh tomatoes. And since we're celebrating How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week, this is a perfect way to use tomatoes when they're at their peak of flavor, which is precisely what makes sauce like this so fantastic tasting.

Probably it was the fact that I saw this recipe in the September issue of Fine Cooking Magazine that tipped the scales in favor of me trying it. If you haven't discovered Fine Cooking, I'm rapidly becoming convinced it's the ultimate in cooking magazines. So far, every recipe I've tried from it has been completely a keeper, including this one. Considering how I like to do my own thing with recipes, I actually followed the recipe fairly closely, except for adding more basil, and I did get distracted and let it sit a lot longer than the recipe specified. I hope you'll try the recipe, and if you do, I predict it will become one of your all-time favorite ways to use garden tomatoes.

Cut up 3-4 vine-ripened tomatoes into pieces about 1/2 inch square and put them in a glass or crockery bowl. (Don't use metal, since the tomatoes will be sitting in the bowl for quite a while). Add some olive oil, lots of chopped basil, and a bit of thyme, garlic, salt, and Aleppo Pepper.

Mix the ingredients up a bit and let them sit in the bowl on the counter for several hours. (I actually had mine sitting out for about 6 hours, and it was perfect.)

Cook pasta, drain, and then put pasta back in pot and pour in the sauce. Gently combine, and top with lots of freshly-grated parmesan. Serve and wait for raves from your family or guests. Don't tell them that you hardly did a thing to produce such a fantastic flavor.

No-Cook Pasta Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes, Basil and Thyme
(Makes about 4 generous servings, recipe slightly adapted by Kalyn from Fine Cooking Magazine.)

Ingredients:
3-4 large vine-ripened fresh tomatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (about 3-4 cups tomatoes)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (use your best olive oil for this)
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil
1 T fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tsp. finely minced fresh garlic (or more if you love garlic)
1/2 tsp. sea salt (or more to taste)
pinch Aleppo Pepper or other hot pepper flakes
about 8 oz. pasta of your choice (I used Dreamfields Penne)
freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving

Instructions:

Wash tomatoes, pat dry, then cut away stem part and cut tomatoes into 1/2 inch pieces. (Be sure to save as much of the tomato jelly around the seeds as you can since it's the most flavorful part) Put diced tomatoes into large glass or crockery bowl.

Wash basil leaves and spin dry or dry with paper towel. Finely chop basil with chef's knife and add to tomatoes. Wash several thyme branches, pat dry, then strip off the leaves into bowl with basil and tomatoes. Add olive oil, garlic, sea salt, and aleppo pepper and gently combine. Let sauce mixture sit on the counter at room temperature for at least one hour and as long as all day.

When ready to eat, cook pasta in boiling salted water for 8-9 minutes, until barely al dente. Drain pasta well, then put back into cooking pot, pour in sauce mixture and gently combine. Put pasta on individual serving plates and serve with lots of fresh-grated parmesan cheese. (Raw tomatoes should never be refrigerated, so I recommend making only as much as you will eat at one meal.)

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(See all the ideas for How to Use Garden Tomatoes Week at the post for Day One.)

South Beach Suggestions:

Sauce like this combined with Dreamfields pasta or other low carb or whole-grain pasta is a perfect meal for phase two or three of the South Beach diet. For phase two, I would eat a small serving of the pasta, with big serving of perfect salad. For phase three, you could have a larger serving of pasta.

More Tasty Versions of No-Cook or Quick-Cook Tomato Sauces for Pasta:
(Recipes from other blogs may or may not be South Beach diet friendly, check ingredients.)
Food Processor Pasta Sauce from I Like to Cook
Summer in a Bowl from I'm Mad and I Eat
Chimichurri Pasta from Tea and Cookies
Pasta with Cold Sauce from Too Many Chefs
Five Minute Tomato Sauce from 101 Cookbooks
No Cook Tomato Sauce from Andrea's Recipes