fresh tomato pasta sauce

I love a good giant bowl of spaghetti topped with a heaping spoonful of slow-simmered, meaty tomato sauce just as much as the next carb-loving girl, but in the summer? Yeah, not so much. Summer finally decided to show up this week and it is obnoxiously hot and obnoxiously muggy. Two things that do not go so well with a batch of tomato sauce simmering on the hot stove for hours and hours.

But just because it’s 4,000° outside doesn’t mean I’m cutting out big bowls of pasta. It just means I make a summer-friendly version of tomato sauce!

Not only is this summer-friendly because it only takes 15 minutes, but also because it uses fresh herbs and tomatoes which are coming off like gangbusters in Southern Indiana right now. We’ve been canning and drying Romas as the come off, but I set a shirt-full (other people carry produce in their shirts, right?) just for this pasta sauce.

This sauce is all about the tomatoes. There aren’t a lot of other additions. It’s 100% vegan. And I don’t add a lot of spices. It’s unabashedly tomato-y. Which is why this tomato-lover could plow through heaping bowl after heaping bowl of this stuff. It’s such a different experience from eating standard marinara sauce, but entirely amazing in its own right. I know it sounds weird to describe a pasta dish as light, but that’s exactly what this sauce is. It’s light, brightly-flavored and totally summer-y. I tossed the sauce with some whole wheat pappardelle I made, and then topped it with some shredded parm. It was a perfect summertime dinner.

Enjoy!

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Fresh Tomato Pasta Sauce

Yield: 4 servings

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Make this sauce in the hottest parts of summer, when fresh herbs and tomatoes are readily available.

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Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
• 12-15 Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 handful of flat leaf parsley, minced
• 1 handful basil, sliced into ribbons
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add in the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until the garlic is tender and fragrant, about 5 minutes.
2. Add in the tomatoes and cook until they have released their juices and lost their shape, about 5 minutes. Add in the parsley, basil, salt and pepper and cook for an additional minute. Remove from heat and puree using an immersion blender until mostly smooth (but a little bit chunky). Toss with fresh cooked pasta.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1 serving
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 115Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 95mgCarbohydrates: 11gFiber: 4gSugar: 6gProtein: 3g

At Wholefully, we believe that good nutrition is about much more than just the numbers on the nutrition facts panel. Please use the above information as only a small part of what helps you decide what foods are nourishing for you.

What’s your favorite way to eat a bowl of pasta?