What is a raw tomato pasta sauce, and when is it worth making?

On the hottest days of summer, the last thing anyone wants is a pot of sauce bubbling for an hour. This is the answer: tomatoes that are never cooked, a bowl, some time, and a pan of pasta. When the tomatoes are good, it tastes like the season in a single bowl. When they are not, it tastes like wet salad on pasta, so choose your moment.

What it is

A raw tomato sauce is essentially a tomato salad that meets hot pasta. Ripe tomatoes are chopped, salted and mixed with olive oil and aromatics, then left to sit. The salt draws out juice, which mixes with the oil into a light, fragrant dressing. Hot pasta goes straight into the bowl, the heat softens the tomatoes and releases their perfume, and everything is tossed together. Nothing is cooked except the pasta.

When it is worth making

Only with tomatoes that taste of something on their own. That means:

• In season, from midsummer into early autumn where you live.
• Ripe and fragrant, with that green, sweet smell at the stem, and heavy for their size. Our guide to picking ripe tomatoes helps.
• Never chilled. Fridge-cold tomatoes taste muted and feel mealy.

Cherry and small plum tomatoes tend to be reliably sweet and are a good choice when you are unsure. Out of season, a quick cooked sauce from good tinned tomatoes will be far better.

Salting ahead and marinating

This is where most of the flavour comes from.

1. Chop the tomatoes into small pieces, or halve cherry tomatoes. Keep all the juice and seeds; they are the sauce.
2. Salt them generously in a large bowl, the one you will serve from.
3. Add olive oil, a good amount of your best extra virgin.
4. Add aromatics: a clove of garlic, lightly crushed or very finely sliced; torn basil; a pinch of chilli flakes if you like.
5. Leave it to sit at room temperature while the water boils and the pasta cooks, or longer. Stir it once or twice. You will see a pool of pink, oily juice forming. That is what you want.

If you used a whole crushed garlic clove, fish it out before adding the pasta, unless you love raw garlic.

The warm toss

• Cook the pasta in well-salted water until just al dente.
• Drain it quickly, keeping a cup of the cooking water.
• Tip the hot pasta straight into the bowl of tomatoes and toss thoroughly. The heat wilts the basil and warms the tomatoes.
• Add a splash of pasta water if it looks dry, and a little more oil.
• Taste for salt and add fresh basil.

Serve straight away, warm rather than hot. It is also good at room temperature, which makes it a fine dish for a long, lazy lunch outside.

Which pasta?

Long strands such as spaghetti or linguine catch the oily juices well. Short shapes with ridges or hollows, like penne, fusilli or orecchiette, scoop up pieces of tomato. Our page on pasta shapes and sauces has more pairings.

Additions that work

• Mozzarella or burrata, torn in at the end so it softens without melting completely. Or cubes of ricotta salata.
• Capers and olives, for salt and sharpness.
• Rocket, folded in for pepperiness.
• A spoonful of ricotta on top of each bowl.
• Toasted breadcrumbs for crunch.
• Lemon zest, for a brighter version.

Keep the additions few, so the tomatoes stay in charge.