Sungold Tomato Pasta

(Shout out to Wishbone Kitchen for the recipe.)

Every Spring, I get overly confident and ambitious in my gardening skills and go into a planting frenzy. This past season, my wife requested we grow a variety of tomatoes. Now, 8 years ago, when we first moved into our house, I asked my wife for a large, raised planter for my birthday, into which I planted a zucchini, some strawberries, and a Brandywine tomato. The strawberries flourished, with little effort on my part. The zucchini is a story best left for another day after I get a few more therapy sessions under my belt and work through my PTSD from the Summer of Perpetual Zucchini Bread. The Brandywine... the Brandywine... 

For months, I focused my physical and emotional energy on that tomato. I monitored the weather so I can make sure it had appropriate watering. I invested in cages, clips, stakes, Miracle-Gro. I poured my soul and a lot of money onto one finicky, temperamental plant who, at the most, gave me maaaayyyybeee 4 fruit - usually cracked, occasionally peppered with holes from some bug I fought valiant battles against. On top of that, I blame the Brandywine for unaliving the bell pepper I planted next to it. I mean, I don't have any solid evidence of this, but the tomato was and will always be my prime suspect.

Anyway, my wife requested we do Roma, San Marzano, Old German, and (you guessed it) Brandywine. It is now almost September. This season, I've outdone myself with exactly ZERO Brandywines.

Eff 'dem Brandywines.

We did manage to eke out a handful of the other varieties, though. Definitely not enough to make any type of sauce with, so this recipe was created using grocery store tomatoes.

• 1 lb dried spaghetti
• 
  
• 2 cartons of Sungold tomatoes, halved (TBH we did not use Sungolds. I don't even know what we used, other than they were yellow. The result wasn't the gloriously golden sauce as pictured on Wishbone Kitchen. It was yellow, but not "my retinas!" yellow, so we added a pinch of saffron to justify that had previously bought a $20 jar of saffron.)
• 
  
• 2 small shallots, thinly sliced
• 
  
• 5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 
  
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• 
  
• 1 TB of olive oil
• 
  
• 4 TB butter
• 
  
• 1/4 cup freshly grated parm
• 
  
• Fresh basil leaves, separated from the stems

the beautiful bounty of not our tomatoes

Heat a Dutch oven over medium low heat, add the olive oil and sliced shallots. Cook until shallots begin to caramelize, about 8-10 minutes. Add the thinly sliced garlic and cook for another 8 minutes.

Add a few basil stems, a pinch of red pepper flakes and the Sungolds. Increase the heat to medium high. Cook for another 10 minutes, smashing the tomatoes to release their juices.

Pick out the basil stems and discard. Turn off the heat and transfer tomato mixture to a blender. Blend until completely smooth and add back to the pot. (Tip: leave the center of the blender off and just cover the hole with a towel, if you blend hot ingredients; otherwise, it will explode. Ask me how I know this.)

Cook spaghetti in salted water, according to the package instructions. Heat the sauce over medium low. Transfer the cooked pasta out of the boiling water directly into the simmering sauce and toss to coat.

Allow the pasta to cook for another minute in the sauce. Turn off the heat, add butter, a large handful of fresh grated parm, and a splash of pasta water. Toss to combine, continue adding pasta water until sauce becomes glossy and emulsified.

Fold in fresh basil leaves. Plate and top with more basil.