Just 5 Ingredients to Fantastic: Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce

Sweet vibrant cherry tomatoes make an ah-mazing topping for pasta and so much more when roasted with onion, garlic and extra virgin olive oil, then tossed with fresh herbs. Simple oven roasting intensifies the tomato flavor while softening the bite from the onion and garlic. The result is a sublime chunky cherry tomato pasta sauce with bursts of sweet tomato you can’t help but love.

And while this thick chunky sauce is great over noodles (or zoodles!), it’s also wonderful spooned over chicken, pork, salmon or even your favorite burgers. You can even use it on pizza or cauliflower polenta. How about on some crispy fried (preferably oven-fried or air-fried) eggplant with melty cheese? The possibilities are endless. Whether you’re vegan or a hard-core carnivore or somewhere in between, this 5-ingredient sauce adds a punch of flavor to so many dishes.

Why Cherry Tomato Pasta Sauce?

Most pasta sauces are made from the big tomatoes. Because they’re easier to manage and peel. But if you ever find yourself overwhelmed with an abundance of sweet harvest cherry tomatoes and wondering what to do with all the LITTLE tomatoes, this sauce is for you.

That was me, this summer. My dad gifted me what he called a “quad” last spring. Four cherry tomato plants of different colors planted all together. His idea was the four would grow and intermingle. And it would be kind of like having one cherry tomato plant that produced four kinds of tomatoes. Which sounded great. But these plants were voracious! They grew and took over and just kept growing. And blooming. Making more and more tomatoes.

To give you an idea of what I mean, I’ll give you a glimpse of my crazy messy garden. I’m not so sure it truly shows the magnitude of these crazy plants. but maybe you’ll get the picture. It’s well over 6 feet tall!

I ended up cutting the Quad back severely. My poor broccoli was dying in the shade! And I had a hard time even getting into the garden to pick things. But when I cut it back, I had a BUNCH of little green baby cherry tomatoes that I couldn’t bear to throw away. So I threw all the little green ones into a box with a hoard of the ripe ones to help them along. They are ripening!

While I’ve really enjoyed munching on these little babies all summer, now that we are in full harvest mode, I am getting a little overwhelmed. So that’s why I started roasting my little multi-colored cherries. And oh man, I am reveling in the results. I’m not kidding when I said it’s 5 ingredients to fabulous.

A little note about the ads

Okay, guys, I know you’ve enjoyed this blog pretty much ad-free for well over 10 years. Recently I’m guessing you’ve noticed there are ads showing up above and below and even beside the content area now. Since I started this blog in July 2011, I have been funding this blog out of my own pocket. As time goes on, it’s gotten more and more expensive. But recently I was approached by Gourmet Ads. Even though this is my HOBBY, I started to give it some thought.

I’ve always resisted ads because I feel like they detract from the content. But let’s face it, this blog isn’t making any money and it takes a LOT of work. At some point it ought to at least pay for itself. So unless you want to start paying for recipes, it feels like a few ads might be okay. As long as they fit with the content and they don’t take over or get TOO annoying.

I have been waiting and looking for an ads network that really fits with my theme. Gourmet ads seems like it should be a good fit. We’ll probably be tweaking things for a while to fine tune it so it all feels more cohesive. So please be patient.

In the meantime: if you want to support this blog, please click on an ad or two. It costs you nothing, and helps immensely! And perhaps you’ll find something that resonates with you. The master classes look intriguing to me. If only I had more time.

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