Pasta with Blistered Cherry Tomato Marinara
with side salad
Searing cherry tomatoes until they blacken in spots and burst open concentrates their flavor. It makes them a great flavor base for homemade marinara in this quick stove top meal.
Ingredients
- Shallots - 2 bulbs, chopped
- Garlic - 4 cloves, chopped
- Tomatoes, cherry or grape - 1 1/2 cups, halved
- Pasta, spaghetti or linguini - 10 oz
- Butter - 2 Tbsp
- Oil, cooking - 1 Tbsp
- Italian seasoning - 1 tsp
- Red pepper flakes (opt) - 1/4 tsp
- Tomatoes, crushed (15 oz / 397 g) - 1 can
- Sugar - 1/4 tsp
- Lemon juice - 1/2 tsp
- Cheese, parmesan (opt) - 1 oz, grated
- Jalapenos - 1/4, chopped
- Cilantro - 2 Tbsp, leaves torn and chopped
- Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped
- Yogurt, plain or Greek - 1/3 cup
- Oil, olive - 3 Tbsp
- Lime juice - 2 tsp
- Mustard, Dijon - 1 tsp
- Honey - 1/4 tsp
- Cucumbers - 8 oz, chopped
- Mixed greens - 5 oz
- Pepitas / pumpkin seeds - 1/4 cup
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Shallots / Garlic - Prep as directed. Store separately. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Make creamy cilantro lime vinaigrette - (Double if making Thursday's meal.) Roughly chop jalapenos (you can skip these or use just a small amount if you prefer less spice), cilantro and garlic (portion for the salad). Combine with yogurt, olive oil, lime juice, mustard and honey. Blend with an immersion blender. Taste and season with some salt. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Tomatoes / Cucumbers - Prep as directed. Store separately. (Can be done up to 2 days ahead)
Unlock this meal along with hundreds of smart meal plans and never stress about "What's for dinner?" again
Try for freeLearn More
Make
- Bring a large stockpot of salted water to a boil. When water boils, add pasta and cook until tender. Drain.
- While water is boiling / pasta is cooking, make marinara.
- Heat a large saute pan with cooking oil over high heat. Add cherry tomatoes with a pinch of salt and saute until tomatoes soften and start to blacken in spots, 4 to 5 minutes. Set blistered tomatoes aside and return pan to heat.
- Reduce pan to medium heat. Add butter and then shallots. Saute until shallots are tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Add garlic (portion for the marinara), Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes. Pour crushed tomatoes over top and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes to let the flavors develop. Remove from heat and stir in blistered tomatoes, sugar and lemon juice. Season with some salt and pepper.
- Toss greens, cucumbers and pepitas with vinaigrette.
- Serve tomato marinara over pasta with some parmesan cheese if you’d like. Enjoy salad on the side.
Nutrition Facts
Reviews
Ratings
33 reviews
Absolutely wonderful and not too much prep involved! Squeezing the lime wedges at the end makes a big difference.
0 HelpfulWe don’t like jalapeño or cilantro, so added some lime zest to the sauce to brighten it up. Baked the tilapia since I had frozen fillets.
0 HelpfulSimple and delicious marinara. Added extra cherry tomatoes because I had them. Would do half the garlic in the dressing. Maybe I accidentally doubled it? Was super duper garlic-y.
0 HelpfulI loved this. I forgot to double check amounts, so I accidentally used a whole jalapeno instead of just a quarter, so the vinaigrette was a tad spicier than I would have preferred, but it was still really good.
0 Helpful