Cherry Tomato Pasta
Cherry tomatoes cooked down and passed through a sieve into a sweet, clinging sauce, folded through small pasta cooked well past al dente.
5 · Minced & Moist
Soft, moist, and finely minced into very small pieces that mash easily with light pressure from a fork. Any sauce or gravy should cling rather than separate.
Suitable for anyone who finds food hard to chew or swallow. Graded IDDSI Level 5 (Minced & Moist) — soft, minced & easy to swallow — the texture standard used in dysphagia care and soft diets.
See all texture levelsIngredients
- 500 g Cherry tomatoes
- 250 g Small pasta shape Ditalini, orzo, pastina or small shells. Not spaghetti — see the serving tips
- 3 tbsp Olive oil
- 3 cloves Garlic, sliced Goes through the sieve with the tomatoes, so it never reaches the plate whole
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 pinch Sugar Only if the tomatoes are sharp
- 30 g Butter Not optional at this texture level — see the serving tips
- 150 ml Pasta water Reserved before draining
- 30 g Parmesan, finely grated Grated to a powder, not shaved
- To taste Black pepper Leave it out below Level 5
Instructions
Warm the olive oil in a wide pan over medium-low heat and add the sliced garlic. Cook gently for a minute or two until it smells sweet, without letting it colour.
Add the cherry tomatoes whole, along with the salt and the pinch of sugar if using. Cover and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, pressing them with the back of a spoon once they soften, until they have burst completely and collapsed into a loose sauce.
Pass the whole lot through a fine sieve or a food mill, pressing hard on the solids. What stays behind is skin and seed, and it goes in the bin. This single step is what makes the dish safe rather than merely soft.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in well-salted water for 3 to 4 minutes longer than the packet says. It should be soft all the way through with no firmness left in the centre. Reserve 150 ml of the water before draining.
Return the sieved sauce to the pan over low heat. Whisk in the butter until it emulsifies and the sauce turns glossy.
Add the drained pasta and a splash of the reserved water. Cook together for 2 minutes so the pasta drinks in the sauce, then stir through the grated parmesan.
Chop the finished pasta down to 4 mm, or give it two or three short pulses in a food processor. Loosen it with more of the reserved water until the sauce coats every piece and nothing sits loose in the bowl. Serve straight away.
Serving Tips
Important Guidance
- The photograph shows the dish as it is usually made: long spaghetti, whole burst tomatoes with their skins, shaved parmesan and chopped herbs. None of that is what is graded here. This version uses a small pasta shape, the tomatoes are sieved, and the cheese is grated to a powder.
- Long pasta is the single biggest hazard in a bowl like this. Strands cannot be chewed into shorter pieces the way other food can, and they are swallowed in lengths. Use ditalini, orzo or small shells from the start rather than cutting spaghetti up afterwards.
- Cherry tomato skins are tougher than those of large tomatoes, and there are far more of them per bowl. They survive any amount of cooking and come away in curls. Sieving at step 3 is not a refinement, it is the point.
- Keep the butter. Pasta chopped this fine dries out and begins to clump as it cools, and fat is what keeps the pieces separate and the sauce clinging. This is not the dish to make lighter.
- Serve it immediately. Pasta stiffens and turns tackier as it stands, so a bowl that was right in the pan can be wrong by the time it reaches the table. Loosen it with warm water or stock and check again before serving.
- Level 4 is possible here but it is the one to watch. Blended wheat pasta turns gluey, and Level 4 should never be sticky. If you are going there, blend it with noticeably more sauce than looks right plus the butter, serve it at once, and test it against the back of a spoon: it should fall away cleanly rather than pull in threads. If it stays tacky however much you loosen it, serve the sieved sauce on its own at Level 4 rather than forcing the pasta through. A smooth tomato sauce is a perfectly good dish; glue is not.
Nutrition Facts
Estimated from the listed ingredients across 4 servings, assuming most of the sieved skins and seeds are discarded. This is an estimate, not a lab-tested nutrition label.
Dietary Notes
Vegetarian. Contains gluten and dairy — a gluten-free small pasta shape works, and olive oil can replace the butter, though you lose some of what keeps the pieces from clumping. Moderate in sodium as written.