There’s something about a bowl of pasta that makes the world seem a bit brighter. Long noodles, short pasta shapes, tangy or creamy sauce, parmesan cheese or breadcrumbs on top. There are countless ways to prepare a bowl of pasta and all of them have the potential to satisfy your stomach and soothe your soul. Some pasta sauces take a full day to prepare and some can be made in mere minutes. Whatever the case it’s something to savor. For the seventh and final day of TOMATO WEEK I give you my pièces de résistance: Unexpected Fresh Tomato Pan Sauce.
This sauce was created with Marcella Hazan’s famous tomato sauce in mind. I wanted limited ingredients to include fresh tomatoes of course. I wanted something familiar and yet a bit different all at the same time. It needed to be easy and quick, something you could make on a weeknight, but luxurious and a little special. I also wanted to expand on the idea of a brown butter sauce for pasta and add fresh tomatoes.
If you’ve heard me discuss tomato sauce before you’ll know that I detest the idea of putting sugar in my tomato sauce. It just seems plain wrong. Knowing that this sauce needed a bit of sweetness I first relied on brown butter instead of olive oil. A sweet onion helps with sweetness as well. The secret and possibly most unexpected ingredient is a bit of cinnamon powder. It’s likely cinnamon has been used in Italian cooking for thousands of years. It adds an aroma and sweetness that offsets the acid of the tomatoes. It works perfectly in this sauce.
Try Unexpected Fresh Tomato Pan Sauce tonight! It’s a great way to learn how to make fresh tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes. In other words, its a worthy use of the season’s precious fresh tomatoes. Make it while tomato season is in full swing. Out of almost 40 pounds of tomatoes I officially down to two. I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s tomato recipe series as much as I have. And in case you’re wondering, yes I’ll be buying more tomatoes next week. I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of them!
Unexpected Fresh Tomato Pan Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 sprig fresh thyme or a pinch or two of dried thyme
- 1/2 medium sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced or one small yellow onion
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 1 1/2 lb fresh tomatoes, cut into a large dice
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt plus more to taste
- 8 oz pasta noodles egg fettuccini is preferred
Instructions
- Melt butter in a large wide pan and cook over medium heat until it begins to brown, add thyme sprig and sauté for a few seconds before adding the onion. Cook until onions are soft and butter starts browning a bit more. Scrape the bottom of the pan to ensure the browned butter bits don't burn.
- Once butter is a light brown add in garlic clove and cinnamon, sauté for about 30 seconds and then add the tomatoes and salt. Toss and stir to combine, scraping the sides and bottom as you go.
- Cook your pasta 1 minute short of package directions. Reserve pasta water.
- Allow tomatoes to render their juices, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes.
- Once sauce has begun to thicken and tomato flavors are more concentrated drop in your freshly cooked pasta and stir to coat, cooking for a minute or two more so noodles can absorb flavors. If needed, add pasta water to the sauce to thin and make 'saucier'. Taste an adjust seasoning.
- Serve with freshly grated parmesan on top if desired.