This Angel Hair Pasta with Cherry Tomato Sauce is so quick and easy! Ready in about 20 minutes flat, and SO GOOD! Best with fresh summer cherry tomatoes.

Photography Credit: Sheryl Julian

Every once in a while, I improvise a pasta dinner that I like so much, I end up making it twice in one week. That’s what happened with this recipe.

It’s so quick and simple: Just sauté colorful cherry tomatoes with garlic and toss them with angel hair pasta. Top it with Parmesan and you’re done

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To say the sauce is quick doesn’t quite get the point across. It’s practically instant. This is one of those surprising meals that is more than the sum of its parts.

Angel hair pasta is sometimes labeled capellini or capelli d’Angelo – either is fine. If you can’t find angel hair, use thin spaghetti, sometimes labeled spaghettini. All of these different pastas cook in minutes.

You need two pints of mixed cherry tomatoes. Pierce them with a knife so they don’t burst their juices all over you while they cook. Four minutes in a hot skillet makes them a little saucy and deliciously intense.

Save some of the pasta cooking water before you drain the angel hair – it’s starchy and adds some richness and silkiness to this simple sauce.

Toss the pasta with the tomatoes and basil leaves right in the pan, and sprinkle some Parmesan goes on top. You can serve this quick and pretty pasta dish straight from the skillet. Again and again.