Super Simple Spaghetti
This is one of those recipes we keep coming back to on a weeknight when we want something proper tasty without any faff. It's a beautiful, punchy tomato spaghetti built on garlic, sun dried tomatoes and sweet cherry tomatoes that burst down into the most incredible sauce. The sun dried tomatoes are the secret weapon here, giving it this deep, almost jammy richness that makes it taste like you've been cooking for hours. Honestly, we make this all the time and it never gets old. If you've got 20 minutes and some pasta in the cupboard, just make this tonight.
Before You Start
- Cooked spaghetti ready
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves - skins on
- 25g sun-dried tomatoes
- 600g cherry tomatoes
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 75ml water
- cooked spaghetti - enough for 4 people
- 1 handful of basil leaves
Method
Cook the sauce
- Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the garlic and sun dried tomatoes & stir
- Add the cherry tomatoes, salt and pepper and stir well
- Add the water
- Cover the pan to sweat the tomatoes until their skins begin to break
- Add the basil and stir until everything's well mixed
- Cover the pan again and leave to simmer for about 5 minutes
Time to serve
- Add the spaghetti and mix until it's well coated in the sauce
- Serve immediately with a garnish of basil leaves and pine nuts
Tips & Variations
- Don't skip the lid: Covering the pan while the tomatoes sweat is what makes the sauce come together. It traps the steam and helps the skins split so you get that lovely broken-down, saucy consistency without needing to add loads of extra liquid.
- Use good sun dried tomatoes: We find the ones packed in oil give way more flavour than the dry-packed kind. Just drain them well before adding and maybe use a splash of the oil they came in instead of regular olive oil for extra depth.
- Save your pasta water: If you're cooking spaghetti separately, save a cup of the starchy pasta water before you drain it. Adding a splash when you toss the pasta through the sauce helps everything cling together beautifully.
Why This Works
The trick is letting the cherry tomatoes sweat down slowly with the lid on so they collapse into the oil and sun dried tomatoes rather than just sitting there. That little bit of water lifts everything up and creates a proper saucy base rather than something dry and clumpy. Fresh basil stirred in at the end keeps it bright and aromatic, which cuts through all that rich, sweet tomato flavour perfectly.