Elevate your pasta game with endless tomato sauce twists
Pasta with tomato sauce is perhaps the simplest and best dish in the world. With just a few basic ingredients, you can whip up a delicious dinner that will perfectly suit the whole family's tastes. Furthermore, the recipe serves as a base for endless modifications so that you can surprise your loved ones with a new version of their favorite pasta each time.
When in season, it's worthwhile to prepare the sauce with fresh tomatoes. Choose a sweet variety with lots of flesh, such as plum tomatoes or beefsteak tomatoes. Before tossing them into the pan, peel off the skin — to make it easier, you can blanch them in boiling water or pop them into the microwave briefly. Remove the seeds and cut the tomatoes into cubes.
A long list of additions to pasta with tomatoes
If you want the pasta with tomatoes to serve as a base for other, more sophisticated dishes, you have plenty to choose from. There's probably no ingredient that wouldn't pair well with this simple Italian sauce. If you enjoy spicy dishes, add fried bacon and chili peppers — this will give you pasta all'arrabbiata.
Olives and capers are also popular additions. If you combine them with anchovies, you'll create puttanesca. However, you don't have to limit yourself to Italian classics. Fried sausage, such as chorizo or chicken pieces, pairs well with tomatoes too. You can try a version with grilled vegetables, like zucchini or eggplant, or add tofu for something different.
Recipe for pasta with tomatoes
Choose any pasta for the fresh tomato sauce — spaghetti, penne, tagliatelle, or farfalle. I encourage experimenting with whole grain or buckwheat pasta.
Ingredients:
- 1 onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 large or 4 small peeled tomatoes
- Spaghetti pasta
- 2 teaspoons of olive oil
- A pinch of salt and pepper
- Fresh basil or dried Provençal herbs
Directions:
- Heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the finely chopped onion until translucent.
- Add thinly sliced garlic and diced tomatoes (peeled) after a moment.
- Cover with a lid and cook on low heat until the sauce thickens.
- Then pour the contents of the pan into a blender and blend until smooth.
- Transfer the sauce back to the pan, add salt and pepper, and finally the chosen herbs.
- Serve with pasta cooked according to the instructions on the package.
You can additionally sprinkle the pasta with grated Parmesan or mix it with small mozzarella balls.
