I’m always looking for speedy supper ideas. As much as I love spending time over the cooker, some nights I really can not be bothered. Those nights tend to be the three nights in the week I’m working in our village co-operative – my ‘getting out of the house’ job where I work a few hours in the afternoon and close up the shop in the evening.
The UK laws on selling foodstuffs are a bit funny. It’s illegal (as far as I am aware) to sell anything past its ‘use by’ date, so I tend to reduce things right down in the hopes someone will buy it before I have to throw it in the bin. Then there’s the ‘best before’ date where food is still ok, for awhile yet at least, but it’s not at its best. It’s still edible.
Like these piccolo cherry tomatoes.
Six packets of these beautiful little ruby red gems were destined for the bin one day when I started my shift. They were just crying out to me to be saved and made into something – salsa, perhaps?
Googling piccolo tomato recipes I found Nigella Lawson’s Moonblush Tomatoes – simply halve the tomatoes, sprinkle with some seasonings, preheat the oven, pop the tomatoes in, switch the oven off and leave it there overnight.
I did just that. My kind of recipe – no work involved!
However, in the morning my tomatoes looked exactly as they did when I put them in the evening before. Clearly Nigella and I have vastly different ovens.
They needed to be salvaged, again, so I switched the oven on to 220C (I have a fan oven), roasted them for 15 minutes, switched the oven off again to let them cool and then blitzed them in my Froothie Optimum 9400 high speed blender.
Win!
My husband taste tested this quick and easy pasta sauce first for his lunch (see, he’s lucky in that he gets to eat my photographs sometimes!) – he loved it.
The biggest test was the kids. They are the fussiest eaters ever, despite my good intentions.
They loved it! The scoffed every bite of their evening meal without having to be coaxed!
As luck should have it too there was enough natural light filtering through the light cloud cover that day so I was able to take a few half decent photographs! Regular readers will know how much I struggle taking photos during these dark winter months.
I served this sauce on some spaghetti alla chitarra, a square spaghetti with a special rough texture which holds sauce beautifully (or so it says on the packet). I’d picked this up recently at the suggestion of our six year old who spotted it in the co-op and suggested we try it, as it was a new pasta, and it was buy one get one free (he’s learning well!).
My recipe is slightly adapted from Nigella’s version in that I upped the quantities, I used smoked Maldon sea salt and garlic infused olive oil from Pomora and then whizzed it all together in my high speed blender. If you don’t have a high speed blender you might want to sieve it first to get all the seeds out, if you (or your children) prefer a smoother sauce. Add an extra teaspoonful of sugar if you want a sweeter sauce. I wonder if it would make a good pizza sauce…
| Servings | Prep Time | Cook Time |
| 6people | 15minutes | 15minutes |
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 6people | 15minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 15minutes |
- 900 grams piccolo cherry tomatoes halved
- 4 tsp smoked Maldon sea salt
- 1/2 tsp caster sugar (or more, to taste)
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 4 tbsp garlic-infused olive oil (I use Pomora, see link in sidebar)
|
Ingredients
Servings: people
Units:
|
- Preheat oven to 220 C.
- Halve your cherry tomatoes and arrange them, cut side up, on a baking tray.
- Sprinkle with the remaining ingredients and roast for 15-20 minutes.
- Leave to cool slightly and then puree in a high speed blender.
- Serve over pasta.
Click here to view the nutritional information for this recipe.
OTHER QUICK PASTA SAUCE RECIPES YOU MIGHT LIKE
A Tasty Raw Tomato Sauce Recipe by Recipes from a Pantry
Hidden Cauliflower Cheese Pasta Sauce by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Rapid Roasted Vegetable Pasta Sauce by Feeding Boys
Vegetable & Tomato Pasta Sauce by Citrus Spice
Chilli, Bacon & Chickpea Pasta by Fab Food 4 All
Courgette Spaghetti Alfredo by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Whizz, Bang Pizza Sauce by Tinned Tomatoes
Speedy & Spicy Spaghetti Sauce by The Veg Space
Spaghetti alla puttanesca by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
LINKING UP WITH SOME BLOGGING CHALLENGES
Extra Veg by Fuss Free Flavours and Utterly Scrummy
Credit Crunch Munch by Fab Food 4 All and Fuss Free Flavours
No Waste Food Challenge by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
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Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary is a Froothie Ambassador and she uses the Froothie Optimum 9400 blender, the Froothie Optimum 600 slow juicer and the Optimum ThermoCook to make many of her recipes. These are affiliate links, meaning if you buy a blender or juicer through them we will earn a small commission. This is not a paid post and all thoughts and opinions are our own.
We are also ambassadors for Pomora, a unique UK company providing the opportunity for UK and US readers to adopt an olive tree from farmers in Italy. Any adoption made through our website will earn us a small commission.
Mum of three, daydream adventurer, OU Life Sciences graduate, occasional crafter, ex-pat Canadian & quite possibly Britain's most northerly food blogger.
Kirsty Dee says
what a brilliant idea this is, love it. I’m all about simply recipes ☺
Hayley Mulgrove says
Wow this just looks amazing mmm could just eat this right now lol
Leila Benhamida says
Great recipe. Never tried to make tomato sauce with caster sugar. Interesting flavours.
Andrew Petrie says
I’m always looking for dishes like this to help with my ‘squash playing’ diet – and the smoked sea salt is an intriguing idea.
Heather Haigh says
A great recipe for when tomatoes or cheap or I’ve grown a glut.
Heather Haigh recently posted…Recipe – Coconut meringue cookies – gluten and dairy free
Maya Russell says
This looks like a top tomato pasta sauce.
Sarah Louise says
This looks so good! I’ve shared it to my twitter x
don erwood says
simple and tasty. goes particularly well with meatballs which are a fave at the moment
Camilla says
This fresh tomato sauce looks just incredible Elizabeth. Thanks for linking to my pasta and for entering #CreditCrunchMunch:-)
Camilla recently posted…Comment on Non Alcoholic Mojito by Camilla