No Cook Summer Pasta Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes

Fresh tomato summer pasta sauce is a delicious, healthy, vegetarian dinner recipe, and a perfect use for garden tomatoes. Bursting with the vibrant flavors of ripe tomatoes, fragrant herbs, and crunchy pine nuts, this no-cook tomato sauce is perfect for summer days when you don’t want to spend time in a hot kitchen.

Easy, Ideal Summer Pasta Dish

As the temperature rises and the days grow longer, I don’t always want to heat up my kitchen to make dinner. 

I have a couple of raised boxes in my backyard and I can grow just enough to excite me on a daily basis. I grow a lot of herbs, plus arugula, corn, zucchini and of course, tomatoes. 

Nothing is more satisfying than grabbing a little of this and a little of that from your own backyard and turning it into dinner!

This summer tomato pasta sauce is the simplest, absolute best, freshest, fastest and easiest recipe you’ll ever NOT cook!

How to Make Fresh Summer Pasta Sauce

To make this effortless summer sauce, start by chopping your tomatoes.

Add some fresh basil, cut chiffonade. (OK, I love to use that word).

Chiffonade is one of those fancy French culinary terms that means, “roll all the leaves together into a tight little package and chop really finely.” Check out this One Minute Food Byte, to learn how to chiffonade basil.

Add in the pine nuts, garlic, and cheese. 

Drizzle with olive oil and a squirt or two of balsamic vinegar, then season with salt and pepper.

Stir it all together to combine, then let everything “macerate“ (see “Marinade, Marinate, Macerate” for more on that) in a bowl on your counter for a 1/2 hour to an hour. Meanwhile, boil your pasta. 

And voila! Your Italian summer pasta dinner is done.

The Secret to No-Cook Summer Fresh Sauce: Taste, Taste, Taste!

This fresh summer tomato sauce is the type of recipe that I don’t really measure ingredients for.

This recipe is all made to taste, depending on how many tomatoes you have and how much sauce you want to make. Toss the ingredients together, taste it, then judge for yourself. Does it need more basil, salt, pepper… whatever?

Truth is, if it were just you and me in the kitchen together, I’d hand you a spoon, asking you to taste it until it tasted right for us. “More garlic,” I’d ask? Together we’d taste, sip wine and nibble on bits of my homemade bread.

Whenever I try out a new recipe, or even my old tried and true recipes, I usually hand a spoon to whoever’s nearby and ask them, “Salt? Pepper? Garlic?” 

I usually serve this fresh tomato summer pasta sauce on top of angel hair pasta, or as a topping for Bruschetta (BRUS-SKETTA). 

If you’re looking for a light, customizable meal that requires minimal effort, look no further than this fresh summer pasta recipe.

Fresh Tomato Summer Pasta Sauce

Cynthia

Fresh un-cooked tomato sauce with fresh basil, cheese and pine nuts.

5 from 43 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 12 minutes mins

Course Sauce

Cuisine Mediterranean

Servings 4

Calories 469 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 3 large Fresh tomatoes or cherry and pear tomatoes.
• 1/2 cup Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese Freshly grated
• 2-3 cloves garlic minced
• 1/3 cup fresh basil cut chiffonade
• 1/4 cup pine nuts toasted
• 1/4 cup Olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
• kosher Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 pound pasta

Instructions

 

• Chop tomatoes. Add basil, cheese, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
• Stir. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let sit while pasta is cooking, about 20 minutes.
• Toss with pasta or on top bruschetta.

Nutrition

Calories: 469kcalCarbohydrates: 51gProtein: 14gFat: 24gSaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 9mgSodium: 213mgPotassium: 527mgFiber: 4gSugar: 7gVitamin A: 1239IUVitamin C: 19mgCalcium: 180mgIron: 2mg

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