sunshine pasta
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Heirloom tomatoes are starting to pop off (but are delicious through September and even October in many regions!) and it’s time we take advantage of them.
Today’s recipe is just so much fun to make. We chop up three pounds (we like things saucy) of tomatoes and toss them in a bowl with a few simple ingredients like extra-virgin olive oil, garlic, and shallot. Then we cover the bowl with plastic wrap (or whatever you’ve got) and set it out in the sun to marinate for a few hours!
Full disclosure: When I make this meal for myself, I set it out to marinate all day long in the blazing heat. But while writing this recipe, I remembered my food safety training from my catering days, and, uh, that’s not exactly deemed food safe.
Have I ever had any issues with it? No. Am I going to test the odds by instructing 30,000 of you to do it? Eh, I think it’s probably best to avoid that.
SO, we’re going to marinate our tomatoes in the sun for well within the safe limit — just an hour or two — rather than for the whole day.
This entire recipe has less than ten ingredients and requires very little effort. Plus, I’m giving you two options for how to finish preparing it based on what kind of mood you’re in (and/or your current access to sun and warmth).
gimme the options
Preparation option one is a fresh pasta sauce with a taste similar to bruschetta:
The only “cooking” that happens here is the sun-marinating. The big chunks of tomatoes marinate and are then tossed with cooked pasta and some Parm, and voila, you’re done. I love it this way, and I really want you to try it. But there’s another option to consider…
Preparation option two is a pasta with a thick, luscious, cooked sauce:
After the tomatoes marinate, we throw them in a skillet and cook them down into a sauce. No big chunks of tomatoes remain by the end; everything melts into a beautiful saucy sauce. We then toss undercooked pasta straight into the skillet, where it finishes cooking by soaking up the tomato juices. The starch from the pasta thickens up the sauce and helps it cling to the noodles really beautifully.
There is no wrong option — it’s just about what vibe you’re feeling. I’d say option #1 is more fresh and light and summery; option #2 is more of a classic tomato sauce.
Actually… there are three options. You can skip the marinating step entirely and throw everything straight into the skillet to make the cooked pasta sauce. This is a good option if you’re tight on time since, if you want to go the fresh/uncooked sauce route, you gotta let everything marinate for at least an hour.
why can’t we just marinate the tomatoes in the fridge or at room temp?
You can! But it’s fun to stick the bowl out in the sunshine and let Mother Nature do her thing!!!!!
The heat and sunshine — no matter if it’s 110° Houston heat or 75° North Carolina mountain heat — will speed up the marinating process and help those tomatoes, garlic, shallots, basil, and olive oil all get jiggy with it so much faster.
What if it’s cold or raining or super cloudy? Instead of sun-marinating your tomatoes, you can let them marinate on the countertop for a few hours or in the fridge for up to 24 hours!
but I hate tomatoes
There is not a sub for the star of this week’s recipe. Here are some fun summer recipes from the archives to make instead!
turkey zucchini burgers with miso mayo: These are SO DELICIOUS, if I do say so myself.
stupid-simple make-ahead mac and cheese: In case you didn’t make it for the 4th of July, this mac and cheese is so incredibly simple to throw together. You can serve it straight out of the pot, or transfer it to a baking dish to bake as many as three days later.
30-minute shawarma lettuce wraps: This recipe is actually from this winter, but it would make such a lovely light summer dinner!
the dankest taco salad: First things first, yes, dank is a good thing. Secondly, this taco salad is a WONDERFUL way to pack in a ton of vegetables!
sunshine pasta
Serves 4 to 6
Cook time: 1-2 hours for the sun-marinating; 15-30 minutes active cook time based on whether you’re serving the tomato sauce fresh or cooked
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