Tomato season is short and I always feel a little panicked when it starts winding down. The best way I have found to use up a counter full of ripe tomatoes, or a big bag from the farmers market, is pasta. It stretches a lot of tomatoes into dinner, it does not need the oven running for long, and most of these come together in about 30 minutes.
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Here are 15 pasta recipes to make while tomatoes still taste like something. A few use fresh tomatoes straight, some turn a big batch into sauce you can freeze for winter, and there is one cold pasta salad for the days it is too hot to stand at the stove.
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Fresh Tomato and Summer Veg Pastas
These lean on tomatoes at their peak, when they barely need cooking. Add a handful of torn basil at the end and you are done.
Spinach Tomato Pasta (Quick Meatless Dinner)
Creamy Asparagus Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes
Tomato Eggplant Pasta
Lemon Ricotta Pasta
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio
Saucy Skillet and Stovetop Pastas
Weeknight pastas that build a tomato sauce right in the pan while the pasta cooks. Minimal dishes, lots of flavor.
Gigi Hadid Pasta Recipe (Spicy Vodka Pasta)
Spicy Rigatoni (Easy One Pot Recipe)
Creamy Tomato Ground Beef Pasta
One Pot Cheesy Taco Pasta
Spicy Chipotle Chicken Pasta
Easy Lentil Pasta
Slow Simmered and Baked
For when you have a real glut of tomatoes and want to cook a batch down. Freeze half of the sauce and thank yourself in January.
Spaghetti With Meat Sauce Recipe (In Crock pot)
Lentil Bolognese
Baked Meatball Casserole (Baked Ziti)
Healthy Olive Garden's Baked Ziti
A Cold Pasta for Hot Days
When it is too hot to cook, this one gets made ahead and eaten straight from the fridge.
Mediterranean Pasta Salad With Chickpeas
Cold Pasta Salad With Smoked Sausage
Creamy Chicken Pasta Salad
Tips for Cooking With End of Season Tomatoes
- Salt the tomatoes first. Chop them, toss with a good pinch of salt, and let them sit while the pasta water heats. They release their juice and turn into an almost instant sauce.
- Save the pasta water. A splash of that starchy water is what pulls a thin tomato sauce together and helps it cling to the noodles.
- Do not skip the basil stems. Simmer a few stems in the sauce and pull them out at the end. They add more flavor than the leaves alone.
- Overripe and split tomatoes are perfect here. The ones too soft for a salad cook down into the best sauce. Cut away any bad spots and use the rest.
- Cook a double batch of sauce and freeze it flat. Freeze in bags laid flat so they stack. A summer tomato sauce in the middle of winter is worth the freezer space.
- Match the pasta shape to the sauce. Thin sauces want long pasta like spaghetti. Chunky vegetable sauces need ridged shapes like rigatoni or shells that trap the bits.
Tomato Pasta Questions
Do I need to peel fresh tomatoes for pasta sauce?
Not for a quick skillet sauce, the skins soften as they cook and you will not notice them. For a smooth simmered sauce you plan to freeze, peel them by scoring an X on the bottom and dropping them in boiling water for 30 seconds, then the skins slip right off.
Can I use canned tomatoes instead?
Yes, every one of these works year round with good canned tomatoes. Fresh is the reason to make them now, but a can of San Marzano style tomatoes is a solid stand in the other ten months of the year.
What kind of tomatoes are best for pasta?
Roma or plum tomatoes have less water and more flesh, so they cook down fastest. Cherry tomatoes are great for fresh, barely cooked sauces because they burst and sweeten quickly. Big beefsteak tomatoes work too, just cook them a little longer to drive off the extra liquid.
How do I make a summer tomato sauce to freeze?
Cook a big batch down with garlic, olive oil, and salt until thick, cool it completely, then freeze flat in bags or in portioned containers. It keeps for about three months and drops straight into any of the skillet recipes here.
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