So it's November here in California, and while the weather is still warm the tomatoes are sadly over for the year. But I'm not ready to give up my favorite quick dinner, so I have invented a way to make a tasty sauce from cherry tomatoes, which are usually decent all year.

Okay, so here's what you do:

Get your pasta water on the stove and heating.

Get a frying pan on medium-high heat, and put some olive oil in there. Add a big pinch of salt, and press or mince a clove or two of garlic.

Take some cherry tomatoes, a big double handful, and slice them in half. Put the garlic in the pan, and let it just slightly brown before you add in the tomatoes. If there's room, flip the tomato halves so the cut side is down.

Let everything cook for a bit, until the tomatoes break down a little. By now, the pasta water is probably boiling, so put in a good amount of salt and about 2 people's worth of pasta.

Back at the sauce, put in maybe half a cup of white wine. I used Prosecco since I had some open but anything would probably work. At this point I added some frozen meatballs from Trader Joe's, but that's totally optional and you could use sausage instead or just leave out the meat entirely.

Cover the pan and let the meatballs thaw out (if using) and the wine reduce. You can also add something like oregano or red pepper flakes if you want to play around a little. Add a little more wine if you feel like it. The tomatoes by this point will completely break down and just leave the skins, but don't worry, the skins are pretty and they taste good.

Okay, now when the pasta is done, fish it out of the water (this is better than draining because you get a little pasta water with it, but if that's annoying go ahead and use a colander, no worries) and put it in the sauce.

Add a big handful of baby spinach. Stir everything together until the spinach wilts, then add some Parmesan cheese, maybe 1/4 cup. Mix again, then serve with lots of black pepper and some of the wine to drink if you have any left.

Serves 2.

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