The dish has a thick creaminess that you can never duplicate with canned tomatoes, no matter how good they are. So the season when you can make it—when there are good, ripe tomatoes in the market—is fairly short; where I live, just two or at the most three months a year. There is an ideal instant for serving this sauce: When the tomatoes soften and all of their juices are in the skillet, the sauce suddenly begins to thicken. At that moment, it is at its peak; another minute or two later, many of the juices will have evaporated and, although the essence of the sauce is equally intense, it won’t coat the pasta as well. If this happens, just add a little fresh olive oil or butter to the finished dish.

　　

Ingredients

makes 4 to 6 servings

　　Salt and freshly ground black pepper

　　3 tablespoons butter or olive oil

　　1 1/2 to 2 pounds fresh tomatoes (preferably plum), cored and roughly chopped

　　1 pound spaghetti, linguine, or other long pasta

　　1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

　　

Step 1

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Put the butter or oil in an 8- or 10-inch skillet over medium heat. When the butter melts or the oil is hot, add the tomatoes and turn the heat to high.

　　

Step 2

Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes begin to juice up, then turn the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens.

　　

Step 3

Cook the pasta until it is tender but firm. Drain and toss with the tomatoes and cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste, toss again, and serve immediately.

　　

Variations

Step 4

Add about 1 teaspoon minced garlic to the butter or oil, just before the tomatoes. Garnish with minced fresh parsley instead of Parmigiano-Reggiano.

　　

Step 5

Add about 1 tablespoon minced shallot to the butter or oil.

　　

Step 6

Cook the tomatoes with a couple of branches of basil, remove them before serving, and stir about 1/2 cup or more roughly chopped basil leaves into the pasta.

　　

Step 7

Toss the pasta with about 1 cup cubed (1/2 inch or less) mozzarella, preferably fresh.

　　

Step 8

Add hot red pepper flakes to taste along with the tomatoes.

　　

Preparing Fresh Tomatoes

Step 9

Fresh Tomatoes should always be cored before being used (remove a cone-shaped wedge from the stem end). Peeling is optional—if you object to little bits of skin in your sauce, it’s worth the effort. Just drop the tomatoes into boiling water for ten seconds, remove with a slotted spoon, and slip the peel right off. (Alternatively, you can also fish out the skin as the sauce simmers; it automatically separates from the flesh.)

　　From Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes From the New York Times by Mark Bittman Copyright (c) 2007 by Mark Bittman Published by Broadway Books.Mark Bittman is the author of the blockbuster Best Recipes in the World (Broadway, 2005) and the classic bestseller How to Cook Everything, which has sold more than one million copies. He is also the coauthor, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, of Simple to Spectacular and Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Mr. Bittman is a prolific writer, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and is the host of The Best Recipes in the World, a 13-part series on public television. He lives in New York and Connecticut.