Spicy and Saucy Cherry Tomato Pasta Recipe (2025)

A life lesson in pasta learned from an Italian chef. Take your pasta out a couple of minutes before the "instructed cooking time", put it in the sauce, stir, and add a ladle ( or more as needed ) to finish the cooking time. Wait till that additional water is absorbed ( part will evaporate ). This will allow the pasta to absorb the sauce, and the starchy pasta water will cream out and thicken the sauce beautifully.

Where have crispy fried capers been all my life! You need more than three tablespoons. I ate half of them while making the sauce. Stir the tomato paste of low heat! I had a few small burned pieces; family didn't mind though.

This was a perfect family pasta dinner. Kids could leave off capers and I added crumbled Italian sausage to make it heartier. I browned the ground sausage after crisping the capers and added it back to the sauce pan after the tomatoes softened. No other adjustments needed. I topped mine with chopped olives for even more flavor. I used a rustic orecchiette from Trader Joe’s and it was perfect.

Making this right now - smells delicious, even though I had to make do with dried basil. Thanks for the comment about keeping an eye on the tomato paste while browning - went low and slow and it turned out fine!

SO DELICIOUS!!! I also deglazed the pan with a splash of red wine after cooking the tomato paste / garlic / red pepper flakes because the paste stuck to my pan. I added some sauteed mushrooms at the end. I think the fried capers make the dish and the cooked tomato paste adds a nice smoky flavor.

Add pancetta or anchovies, more capers

BEYOND worth the minimal amount of work. What a winner! Deglazed the pan with a touch of red wine ...more capers, more tomato paste, 1 tsp of red pepper, 10-12 ounces of pasta :) If you like it saucy. LOVED the ricotta to cool the heat.

Hi Jen! Are you patting the capers dry in a kitchen towel or paper towel before frying? That should help to remove excess moisture, to help them crisp up! Otherwise perhaps increasing the temperature and/or the cook time should do it.

use this recipe for the fried capers as topping for any puttanesca-style recipe!

My husband and I made this tonight and loved it. We added chorizo to punch up the flavor and get some protein in there, too. The sauce comes out a little thick, so you might want to add a bit more pasta water to taste. With a leafy green salad and a nice glass of wine, It's a perfect Sunday supper.

Excellent recipe - made it as noted with the addition of more garlic. Used the ricotta to finish which balanced nicely with the spicy sauce. This recipe is a definite keeper and crowd pleaser!

Excellent recipe. Stirred the tomato paste quickly and lowered the heat and didn’t have any problems. Served mine with ricotta as suggested—delicious!

I'm such a fan of these fried capers! They are tiny flavor bombs- I wish I made more! That said, I thought the pasta 'sauce' was good but not amazing, aside from the capers. It's easy and fresh so that is good but those capers!!!!!

I learned a recipe incredibly similar to this at a cooking class in Italy. The only difference is it adds olives. I highly suggest doing that.

What a wonderful and simple dish. As I am typically disappointed with the "heat" most recipes bring, I used the full 2 tsp of red pepper flakes, and I probably went a little far. I'd use 1-1.5 next time and I love spice. Will definitely make again.

Had a plethora of cherry tomatoes so searched NY Times cooking app and found this recipe. What a winner. The changes I made were crisping some pancetta before adding capers and tomato paste. Also stirred in a bit of anchovy paste for umami and added some Calabrian peppers. The orecchiette cradled the bits of pancetta and capers. Yummy!

Made this tonight because I had a plethora of cherry tomatoes. Looking for inspiration I searched The NY Times cooking app for cherry tomatoes. This recipe came up. Wow! What a keeper! Changes I made were the addition of pancetta, which I sautéed before adding capers, garlic and tomato paste. Also added some Calabrian chilies. The orecchiette cradled the bits of pancetta and capers. Absolutely sublime!

LOVED this. Added anchovies (full tin) at same time as paste, used olive oil from anchovies upfront with the capers. Used a whole can of capers, will try a full can of tomato paste next time too! Deglazed with wine ahead of adding tomatoes and finished cooking pasta in the sauce with an extra cup of pasta water - great suggestions from above! Extra red pepper flakes and fresh ricotta balanced it out perfectly. Delizoso!

This is REALLY good. One of the best recipes I’ve been from this site (and I’ve made quite a few). Highly recommend!

This recipe is so good! Doubled the capers, added 1 more tablespoon of tomato paste, 1/2 cup more pasta water, doubled the garlic (: & added sautéed spinach & asapargus. One of the best pasta dishes ever.

This was gross. Not sure what went wrong, possibly that the tomato paste is more concentrated than it’s supposed to be? Mention of the concentration level would have been helpful.

This is fine — next time i'd just open a really good jar of Arrabiata sauce, add some capers and basil and call it a day.

Wow this was so much more than the sum of its parts. DELICIOUS. I have one more big batch of cherry tomatoes from the garden and may make it a 2nd time - very easy and worthwhile. Agree about pulling the pasta off while it's al dente and then adding it to the sauce with a little more of the cooking water. I will also deglaze the pan with wine next time - I used water and it was still yummy, but wine would bring it up a notch.

I am going to freeze the remaining bumper crop of cherry tomatoes from the garden in 1-1/2 lb packets to continue enjoying this thru the winter - it's that good! As suggested, I increased the capers/tomato paste/basil, added a splash of wine to deglaze the pan, used a chopped up hot chile in addition to chile flakes, and added a handful of chopped kalamata olives. I finished the plate with shredded Parm and a dollop of ricotta and wow!! With a nice glass of red wine, this is a lovely dish!

I’ve made this recipe many times and will make it many more. 1) it’s super easy (I’ve made it as instructed but now don’t bother halving the tomatoes). 2) the fried capers make this dish 5 stars in my opinion. After the first time making it, I realized, like many people reviewing, that you want more. Like AT LEAST a whole tablespoon if not 2 per serving. Plus some more for snacking while the pasta and sauce cooks.

This was delicious. Added olives and anchovies at the tomato paste stage (actually about 1/2 way through) and some cooked sausage about 1/2 way through the tomato cooking. Also some wine and only 1/4 cup of the pasta liquid. Fresh, summer tomatoes made this special. It is very flexible and easy. Highly recommended.

Wow. Easy. Fast. Adaptable. And seriously good.

Extraordinary! Also added Italian sausage and switched out the orcchiette for bucatini.

Completely agree about lowering heat for tomato paste and adding more capers. Deeeelicious!

Finish pasta in sauce with extra pasta water as mentioned in previous note