Too-Many-Tomatoes Sauce

It’s that time of year, when the tomato plants that spent all summer growing but not bearing fruit have decided to go all out, hell-bent for election, bushels-or-bust. Redquarters has three tomato plants, and we are up to our ears in cherry tomatoes and a few Romas. The snails and blue jays also like Romas, much to MomRed’s disgust and frustration. So what do you do when you have a quart a day of cherry tomatoes? Pasta sauce.

This is the Redquarters version of several that are on the ‘Net or in books. As usual, it is a little of this and a handful of that and to taste with this. You need:

tomatoes*, basil (if you are so inclined), olive oil, a clove or two of minced garlic (if you like garlic), a pound of pasta**. Meat (shrimp in this case) if you want.

Prepare pasta according to instructions. As the water heats, slice all the tomatoes in half (cherry) or into smaller chunks (Roma et al). Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil to shimmering. Toss in the garlic and stir.

As the pasta cooks, toss the tomatoes into the oil. Stir frequently until they start cooking down and looking done. Add a handful or two of chopped fresh basil. If you are doing shrimp, toss those in as well. Stir. Drain the pasta. Keep simmering the tomatoes. Return the pasta to the pasta pot, dump the tomato sauce onto the pasta. Stir. Serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

*I had some sun-dried tomatoes as well, so I reconstituted those, used the soak water for the pasta and tossed the chopped dried tomatoes into the sauce.

**I use penne. The shorter, stockier pastas seem to hold the sauce better than linguine and spaghetti do, in my opinion.

***I also used basil-infused olive oil to go with the regular olive oil, but you may find that’s too basil-y for your tastes.

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