Tomato Season in NC

If you are lucky enough to have access to beautiful NC summer tomatoes, you will have some fine eating for the season. This week we enjoyed a few fantastic tomato dishes and I am sure that Mike would agree that a slightly adapted version of Vivian Howard’s tomato pie was the clear winner for him, well both us, but my favorite dinner was another adapted version of a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe spaghetti with cherry tomato sauce.

Of course I love seasonal vegetables and we eat plenty of tomatoes in season, among my favorites are Bert’s cherry and Clementine tomatoes the mix made for a nice bowl of pasta…

While I started out to make Ina’s or another one of selected guests chef’s tomato pie recipe, I change my pot-luck selection to Another Yotam Ottolenghi tomato dish. Since I had such an abundance of tomatoes this week I needed a rather quick dinner after fiddling with tomato pie the previous day as Vivian calls for roasted tomatoes as well as raw, and caramelized onions that take a bit of time.

Both dishes are wonderful and I would not hesitate to make either of them again…Happy summer tomato time!

Slightly adapted Spaghetti with Yotam’s Cherry Tomato Sauce

5 tablespoons EVOO
2 cloves of thinly sliced garlic
1 pound 2 ounces cherry tomatoes (I used a variety)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 dried ancho Chile, torn into pieces (I had pinches of Calabrian Chile flakes)
3/4 + 2 tablespoon water (I could not resist adding an additional 1/2 cup of white wine and simmered down a bit longer)
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1/4 ounces of spaghetti or fettuccine 1/4 ounces finely grated parmesan cheese

Put the oil into a large sauté panned place over medium-high heat, add the garlic and fry for up to minute, stirring a few times until the garlic is starting to caramelize. Carefully add all of the tomatoes along with the sugar, pepper flakes, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Pour in the water and 1/2 cup of wine if using and stir for 4-5 minutes until tomatoes start to break down and the liquid is bubbling. Decrease the heat to a medium low temperature for about 1 hour, stirring often until the sauce has thickened. Stir in the basil and remove from heat and set aside while you make the pasta. Drain the cooked pasta/reserve some of the pasta water incase your sauce is too thick. Stir the pasta into the sauce and serve with grated part, additional basil, and pepper flakes.