Meatless Monday with Spaghetti with Three-Tomato Sauce

Buon Gourgio and happy Meatless Monday! As we are in late-summer and tomatoes are still bountiful either from your garden, your neighbor’s garden or your local markets, we bring you a recipe that celebrates their seasonal deliciousness.  For this Meatless Monday, here is a rustic pasta sauce that combines three kinds of tomatoes to create a complexity of flavors that is very unique. This recipe comes from the kitchens of Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food where they used a combination of canned, cherry, and sun-dried tomatoes however, any type of tomato you have in abundance would work well, so have fun and experiment.

Ingredients:

• Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound spaghetti
• 2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato oil (from oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes, with juice
• 1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 1 pound cherry tomatoes, halved

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and then add spaghetti to cook. Heat 2 tablespoons of sun-dried tomato oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and crushed red pepper; cook until fragrant (30 seconds). Add canned tomatoes with juice and sun-dried tomatoes. Simmer gently over medium, stirring occasionally and breaking up canned tomatoes until thick (15 minutes). Add cherry tomatoes and simmer until soft (10 minutes). Drain spaghetti, reserving 1 cup pasta water; return pasta to pot. Add tomato mixture and season with salt and pepper. Toss, adding pasta water as desired. Serve immediately.

This recipe serves four, but as with any pasta dish it can easily be adjusted. The bright color of the cherry tomatoes, as well as the condensed flavors of the other tomatoes will make this pasta dish an instant classic with family and friends. A garden salad with a lemon vinegar dressing and a zesty loaf of garlic bread will complete this robust offering. Pick-up some gelato at the grocery store to make this feel like a flavor trip to Italy.

Buon Appetito!