How to Make a Perfect Tomato Sauce Without Cooking the Tomatoes

If you’re like me, you appreciate the ultimate perfection of juicy, ripe, peak-summer tomatoes, tomatoes so good that it would be a crime to cook them. 

The good news is, Cook’s Country’s talented Jessica Rudolph developed a recipe for a pasta dish that celebrates perfect summer tomatoes without cooking them. This pasta also features the milky-sweet flavor of soft burrata. All the cooking that’s required is boiling pasta and sautéing a little garlic. 

This fresh tomato pasta is very easy to make. Simply core and chop up 1½ pounds of the best tomatoes you can find, and toss them in a bowl with a little salt, pepper, and sugar. Then—and this is sheer genius—mince 3 cloves of garlic and heat it with some oil in a skillet until the garlic is fragrant and just begins to turn golden. Pour the garlic and oil over the seasoned tomatoes and toss to combine, letting the tomatoes marinate in the oil for 20 minutes or so. 

Cook and drain a pound of rigatoni, then drain the marinated tomatoes, making sure to save the garlicky, tomato-y liquid. Toss the tomatoes and ½ cup of that flavorful liquid with the hot pasta until the liquid is mostly absorbed. Then transfer the pasta to serving bowls, cut up some burrata, and divide it among the bowls, saving the creamy burrata liquid to drizzle over each serving. 

The finishing touches? Some nice olive oil, more black pepper (I like a lot), and torn fresh basil. 

Here’s a note about the recipe from Jessica herself: “It’s one of my very favorite recipes I’ve developed! I guess one thing to note is it’s more watery than other pasta dishes—the best versions I made left a puddle of tomato-water/burrata-cream mixture at the bottom of the bowl, perfect for sopping up with good bread.”