Pasta con Salsa Cruda

The last tomatoes of summer may be the sweetest of all both for the extra time on the vine and the pleasant memories of warm lazy days. They are always delicious, either sliced or quartered in summery salads like the caprese, but these vine-ripened beauties become the perfect bridge to the fall season when used to prepare a fresh tomato sauce or as seen recently in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Using simple fresh ingredients that are commonly found in most pantries (or gathered during a quick trip to the market) you can have the dish on the table in 30 minutes. By their very nature, vine-ripened tomatoes are sweet as sugar, which means the dish could use a little acid to balance. A Chianti from Italy (made from the Sangiovese grape) or a Sangiovese from this side of the pond, makes a great match for the fresh tomatoes. For those who prefer white, we instead recommend a chilled crisp dry rosé from California or Europe. The recipe calls for lemon juice “as needed” to counter the sweetness in the tomatoes, but we suggest you substitute wine for the lemon juice, which would serve the same purpose. For more information on this recipe, please visit http://seattlepi.nwsource.com.

--Felicia M. Sherbert