Creamy Cherry Tomato Pasta
This one is a proper weeknight hero. We keep coming back to it because it's the kind of pasta that tastes like you've been cooking for hours, but you're done in 20 minutes flat. The cherry tomatoes basically melt down into this glossy, sweet, deeply savoury sauce that coats every strand of pasta beautifully. A good handful of fresh basil and a generous glug of olive oil at the end makes the whole thing sing. Honestly, if you've got a punnet of cherry tomatoes sitting in the fridge right now, make this tonight.
Before You Start
- Potato masher
- Large pan with lid
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 500g cherry tomatoes
- 50ml plant-based cream
- 50g plant-based parmesan grated
- 400g spaghetti
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 sprigs of basil
- Salt & pepper to taste
Method
Prep the veg
- Peel and grate the garlic
- Pick the basil leaves
Cooking the sauce
- Warm the olive oil in a pan over a medium heat
- Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds
- Add the cherry tomatoes to the pan along with a pinch of salt and pepper, stir the tomatoes around in the pan, turn the heat down, put the lid on the pan and cook for 10 minutes
- Gently shake the pan to prevent catching every 2 minutes
- After 10 minutes, take the lid of the pan and gently crush the tomatoes with a potato masher to release the juices
- Add ⅔ of the basil leaves, cream and grated parmesan to the pan and fold into the tomatoes, turn the heat right down
Cooking the pasta
- Cook the pasta according to packet instructions
- Once cooked, drain - saving the pasta water
- Add a dash of pasta water to the sauce pan to loosen the sauce
- Add the spaghetti to the pan and fold it into the sauce
Time to serve
- Twist the pasta into 4 bowls, sprinkle over the remaining basil leaves, crack over some black pepper and serve immediately
Tips & Variations
- Salt your pasta water properly: We know everyone says this but it genuinely makes a huge difference. It should taste like the sea. This is your one chance to season the pasta itself and you don't want to miss it.
- Save some pasta water: Before you drain the pasta, scoop out a mugful of the starchy cooking water. Add a splash to the sauce when you toss everything together and it'll make it silky and help it cling to the pasta perfectly.
- Finish with good olive oil: Don't skip a drizzle of your best extra virgin olive oil right at the end, off the heat. It lifts the whole dish and gives it that gorgeous glossy finish. Trust us on this one.
Why This Works
The trick here is patience with those tomatoes. Putting the lid on and letting them steam and collapse slowly is what builds that incredible depth of flavour, so don't rush it. That low and slow approach turns simple cherry tomatoes into something that tastes almost like a proper slow-cooked sauce, and that's what makes this one so much better than you'd expect from just a few ingredients.