Grated Tomato Pasta

Grating tomatoes is actually very easy. Cut in half at the equator and then put the cut side against the grater. The skin of the tomato will protect your fingers!

Long time ago, I discovered that if you dice tomatoes, ripe fresh tomatoes, put them in a container, freeze, defrost, press-strain (save the tomato water, which is good for other purposes), add basil and other seasoning, EVO or butter, cook briefly, then you get a fresh tomato sauce that clings better without overcooking. You can seriously reduce the tomato water with garlic and oil and add that to sauce.

One Spanish toast breakfast I learned from a Spaniard, is drizzle olive oil over toast then plop on some grated tomato, top w/ a slice of cheese and a slice of ham or salami. Quick, easy and surprisingly good.

Similar to how I make pasta sauce from the garden. I use a second pan, starting the sauce in a wide frying pan while the pasta is cooking. As soon as the garlic is fragrant, add diced onion (white, red, yellow, sweet - any will do). Once most of the onion has turned translucent, grate the tomatoes straight into the pan. When the onions are fully cooked, add ribbons of basil. Turn off the heat, mix, add cheese, serve. As Kate notes, very versatile and accepts other summer veggies beautifully.

I wait patiently every summer for beefsteak or any heirloom tomatoes. I cut then into chunks put them in my blender with salt and fresh cloves of garlic and a handful of fresh basil. I blend it and then pour it over hot cooked spaghetti then add grated cheese. Its delish. We call it raw sauce.

Hmmm! A few years ago one of the leading culinary magazines or websites experimented with tomatoes, preparing simple dishes (1) with peeled & cored tomatoes and (2) with whole, unpeeled, ungutted tomatoes, then blind tasted of the results. Their conclusion was that the whole tomatoes produce better, stronger tomato flavor than do butchered tomatoes. Based on that, I gave it a try, and I haven't looked back. The only reason to peel and core tomatoes is appearance, which is seldom an issue for me.

A food mill, using the coarsest disk, would give the same results without skinning your fingers. Also, weights for the tomatoes and Parmesan would be helpful.

I think theyre better roughly chopped and sauté briefly til break down but not mush. I sauté chopping onion and minced garlic in olive oil first. Then add tomatoes. I fold in the snipped basil when sauce finished. Only add bit of fresh parm. Save pasta water to thin.

Go gently with the grater:) we opted to add other summer vegetables and switched to rigatoni to match the chunkier sauce. Great for a one pot meal.

Grating tomatoes for this sauce and freezing it in small freezer bags works really well as tomatoes start to ripen from the garden. You don’t have to wait until you have a large amount to process. Then just thaw a bag or two and you have a quick marinara sauce.

This is wonderful made as the recipe is written. Summer in a pasta bowl. "Aaaahhh.." some. Grating ripe summer tomatoes on a box grater was game changer technique for me when I learned it from a NYT Cooking recipe from David Tanis 5 years ago. If you like this dish, who wouldn't, you might try that one too. Title: Quick Fresh Tomato Sauce on this site.

My mother, a home economist, used to pour boiling water over tomatoes to remove the skin (scoring them with an X at the top first helps). Then she would chop them up and sometimes drain in a colander with salt.

For me, and probably for many others, a ripe summer tomato has "enough" flavor. At this time of year, sub-par tomatoes don't have enough of anything.

I’m wondering if you could just quickly blanch the tomatoes and peel and core them.

loved this! after it was all prepared, there was really quite a bit of liquid. I left the lid on, off the heat, for about 10 minutes. most of the liquid was absorbed by then. still rather juicy, which I enjoyed. you will need excellent tomatoes, or don't try this recipe!