Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Sun Gold Penne Pasta - A Delicious Antidote for Your Overgrown Bush

Most cherry tomato gardeners have a love/hate relationship with the plant. You love that the plant grows into such a huge bush with minimal effort, and by the end of summer is producing handful, after handful of the small, sweet fruit.

That's also what causes the inevitable feelings of guilt and shame as so much of th
e crop goes to waste. You can only give away so much before people start making excuses. In an attempt to give you one more recipe to use up some of those tomatoes, I present this penne pasta featuring a simple, but surprisingly flavorful sauce.

I used mostly Sun Gold tomatoes, which are my favorite variety -- so incredibly sweet; they're like eating little balls of sunshine. When turned into a quick puree with some garlic and fresh herb, they make a fast and very tasty pasta sauce that may help put a little dent in your bumper crop.

The best ways to eat cherry tomatoes are as follows: First, plucked warm off the vine and eaten raw standing in front of the plant. Next best is raw, in some sort of salad. Third best is made into a sauce as I've done here.

Of course, by this time of the year you are so over the first two options that even though this is only the third best way to enjoy them, it will seem even better that the best two ways... I mean, do the math.

Anyway, I hope you give this pasta a try, and remember, this is suppose to be an extremely simple pasta -- perfect for enjoying the sunny goodness of the tomatoes, so resist the temptation to complicate things by adding lots of "stuff." Enjoy!



Ingredients:
2 cups Sun Gold cherry tomatoes
2 cups chicken broth
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves sliced garlic
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbsp fresh oregano leaves
14-oz dry penne pasta, cooked
salt to taste
1/2 cup grated real Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano)

27 comments:

Simply Life said...

The pasta looks delicious!

Jessica said...

I believe you left the chicken stock off your ingredients list.

Looks good though! My dad accidently planted cherry tomatoes instead of regular ones, and I'm definitely over the first two ways of eating cherry tomatoes.

Chef John said...

oops! fixed, thanks!

Anonymous said...

I used my cherry tomatoes in a golden gaspacho with some good bread, a nice sherry vinegar, some smoked paprika, some cucumber, some orange bell pepper (on sale at the farmer's market this week), some olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic. Usually, I prefer the chunkiness I get with a stick blender, but it makes too much mess, so I just did it in the food processor. AMAZING. My wife liked it so much that we've completely denuded our tomatoes and I'm hankering for more.

But I have to admit that if I get more, I'm making THIS! THANKS!

Shagun Khare said...

Chef, two things of curosity:
1. Why chicken broth? why not the juice of the tomatoes itself? I know there's Chicken Alfredo etc in the US but pasta and chicken? Really?
2. Why oregano and not fresh basil?
What is the herb hierarchy?

Chef John said...

Why chicken broth? adds an extra richness, savoryness that is an additional layer to the juice of the tomatoes.

Pasta and chicken? Really? Really. Have you ever heard of chicken noodle soup? Delicious.

Why oregano and not fresh basil? Both are great. no reason to choose one over the other. Sometimes I listen to Mozart when I driving, and sometime I listen to Rage Against the Machine. Why?

What is the herb hierarchy? There is no such thing.

Anonymous said...

Hello chef John! I have a question...first of all i LOVE your videos...love love love...=). But one thing i need to know is how much is 1 cup in dl, cl och l....I´m from sweden so i dont understand everything ex from tbsp and so on.

I tried your scrambled eggs...end it was soooo good..so i really want to try out your other things here...But as i said..could you PLEASE tell me how much 1 cup is and oz and so on...THANKS you for all you great videos...

Hellen B.

Chef John said...

thanks! if you look at the bottom of the side bar i have a metric conversion widget. just enter what you need

Nishant said...

Hi Chef John,
While I personally have no problem with chicken broth, I live with three vegetarians. How bad would it be to substitute the broth for water? Is there something else I could use instead? Thanks.

Chef John said...

they sell mushroom and vegetable stocks , they will work.

Heidi from Savory Tv said...

Looks good! Sadly my plants yielded 3, only 3 tomatoes, cold summer here in CO and I probably should have tried some organic fertilizer. But if any neighbors shower me with tomato love I am all over this!

PS. You said "savoryness", I like that ;)

jeff said...

Return of the little wooden spoon-YESSS!!!

Jeff

Anonymous said...

In the herb hierarchy I believe basil is king and rosemary is queen, no?

Patricia @ ButterYum said...

Oooh... wish I had seen this a few weeks ago when I had buckets of Sun Gold tomatoes. I oven roasted mine and blogged about it:

http://butteryum.blogspot.com/2009/08/making-sun-dried-tomatoes-at-home.html

soph30 said...

"pull off the green things...those arent edible,"

couldn'tt help but start laughing out loud

chef john you're the best I've been following the site for a long time, first time posting, and I've made a few of your recipes they always turn out perfect

Anonymous said...

Great site chef! I usually am too lazy to keep an eye on the tomatoes on the range, so I just pop them in the oven with some quickly sauteed onions and garlic in butter then roast them with the tomatoes. Then I pour wine and stock and roast them further.

Marilou said...

I tried this recipe and it's delicious :)

Razors Edge said...

If my count is correct there are 53 cherry tomatoes in your pot.

Anonymous said...

I tried adding tenderized butternut squash to this and it makes the sauce much much thicker.

Chris S. said...

I know it might be travesty to suggest this, but can you freeze this? It would be a nice treat later on in fall/winter.

Chef John said...

You could make and freeze the sauce. No prob.

Chris S. said...

Thanks John! Every so helpful!

Chris S. said...

Tried this tonight. All I gotta say is "YEAH!!!" *fist pump*


...and the wife loves it as well :)

Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

Made this last night and it was better than I had hoped for! I added a little basil with the oregano.. delish!

Anonymous said...

I made this... Used golden and cherry tomatoes, added a bit of vermouth wine, a dab of honey to bite the acidity, a small amount of tomato paste to help thicken it up, and basil rather than oregano.

It was an epic meal of epic epicness..

Unknown said...

Chef John,
Really enjoy your blog. Have tried several recipes & they are over the top. The problem is I spend more time watching the videos than cooking. It's contagious! Buy the way, where did you get the ladle I see in all your videos?

Dmase

Unknown said...

Just made this and it was delicious. Added a little rosemary too which I liked a lot. Thanks for another great recipe chef!