Pasta With No-Cook Tomato Sauce

With tomato season starting to peak, now is the perfect time for this beautiful, simple, and delicious recipe! I can not even begin to describe how lovely this dish is. It speaks to something so nourishing and so simple that it's hard to explain.

Whether you have a garden, have joined a CSA, or shop at the farmers market there is nothing that tastes better than a homegrown tomato! So why not highlight that delicious tomato-goodness with this recipe. The sauce is not cooked so all the flavors of the tomato shine!

You can use just about any type of pasta you like, we used whole wheat penne. And the added touch of the ricotta really set this up for yummy-ness! I mixed mine all in and it created this delicious, creamy, tomato-juice sauce for the pasta.

One word of warning though, this is a fresh made dish and it didn't hold well for leftovers. So eat it the day you prepare it and don't refrigerate it at all.

Pasta With No-Cook Tomato Sauce

Serves 4

• 2 pints cherry or grape tomatoes, any color, halved or quartered
• 2 small red, yellow, or orange bell peppers, diced medium
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. red-wine vinegar
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• coarse salt and ground pepper
• 3/4 pound pasta
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn if large
• 1/2 cup ricotta, for serving

1. In a large bowl, toss together tomatoes, bell peppers, oil, vinegar, and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Let sit at room temperature, 20 minutes.
    
2. Meanwhile, in a large stock pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain and add pasta to sauce, tossing to combine. Add basil and toss. Divide pasta among four bowls and top each with ricotta.

Per serv: 501 calories; 17 g fat; 15 g protein; 74 g carb; 6 g fiber

Recipe Credit: Everyday Food Magazine