The most delicious and flavorful cherry tomato sauce made with garlic, shallots, poached cherry tomatoes and basil. It's the perfect sauce to toss with spaghetti or any other long pasta shape. Simmered slowly for the most delicious flavor and it couldn't be easier!
Combine olive oil and shallots in a pot over low heat and cook 10 - 12 minutes until shallots become translucent and soft. Stir in garlic while coating entirely with oil, cook for 15 minutes until garlic has softened.
Add in cherry tomatoes, crushed plum tomatoes and sugar, cook 20 minutes. Stir in fresh basil stems, partially cover pot and allow mixture to cook 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until cherry tomatoes have burst and deflated and the mixture has turned to a rich sauce.
Discard basil or remove some of the leaves from stems and reserve in sauce (I ripped some of the leaves off and kept them in the sauce, it couldn't just toss it all :).
Season sauce with salt and pepper to taste and stir in red pepper flakes to taste if desired. Toss sauce with pasta of choice and serve topped with chopped fresh basil for garnish if desired.
Notes
*I used 3/4 cup but the original recipe stated you could use 1 cup garlic or reduce to 1/2 cup. This for me was about 2 heads of garlic to get 3/4 cup.**Original recipe listed 17 oz (4 cups) cherry tomatoes but I decided to add more, so if you only have 17 oz that's enough. Another side note, sugar not listed in the original recipe.
Variations - Other Things To Add
If you have a carnivorous husband like mine, feel free to add some sort of protein to a portion of the sauce. I added Italian sausage for my husband otherwise I wasn't sure if he'd eat it. You could add ground beef, pork, turkey or Italian sausage. I say it most definitely doesn't need it but if you prefer sauce with meat then of course you could add some.
You could also add extra veggies and greens such as kale or spinach.
Red pepper flakes or fresh chili would add a nice spicy kick.