Cherry Tomatoes & Pasta

This year I’ve been lucky enough to spend the entire summer here in Umbria. I’ve been here full-time since May, and I couldn’t be happier. One unexpected upside of not taking a big vacation in June is that we are focussed on our vegetable garden more than usual. In fact, we’ve managed to grow the most productive vegetable garden we’ve had in years.

Knowing we’d be home all season, I planted far more than we usually do. I also got everything into the ground earlier than normal. In most years we delay planting so the harvest peaks in July and August, when we’re actually here, rather than in June when we’re often traveling. As you know I’ve been dealing with the big cucumber crop of 2026. And I believe we have enough string beans to see us through any sort of apocalypse. My next challenge: cherry tomatoes.

Which is not nearly as challenging as the cucumbers. I can at least freeze the cherry tomatoes (I pop them directly into zip lock bags and they are good to go). But I’ve also just been enjoyimg them at almost every meal. My main mode of attack is of course pasta. Most days I’ve been making versions of this lovely dish which we had for dinner last night.

I know I should have made a video of the process, but it was a long day and I was tired. Sometimes I just want to get dinner on the table. Of course one of the first messages I received this morning was from my neighbor down the road:

Buongiorno Elizabeth! I saw your smashed tomato and ricotta pasta. Do you cook the tomatoes? Thank you for the help!

I was convinced I had already published this Pugliese recipe somewhere on the blog. After a bit of searching, I realized the only place I’d ever shared it was in my book, The Italian Table. In fact, many of my go to tomato pasta recipes I take so much for granted that I have never shared them.

So I thought it was time to fix that.

Below you’ll find my recipe for Pasta with Smashed Cherry Tomatoes along with a handful of my other favorite ways to turn cherry tomatoes into pasta. They’re the recipes I make over and over again every summer, especially when the garden is producing faster than we can possibly eat. And if you don’t have a vegetable garden, don’t worry. Farmers’ market cherry tomatoes are just as dangerous. It’s very easy to come home with far more than you intended.