A cherry tomato bounty calls for this quick, luscious pasta sauce

The first time I heard the phrase “your eyes are bigger than your stomach,” it was uttered by my father at Luby’s Cafeteria in San Angelo, Texas.

You can guess what prompted him. As we went down the line, I would grab just about every plate I saw, but at the table I’d get full long before they got clean. I can’t remember: Did we throw all that uneaten food away, or did we — I hope — pack doggy bags?

The same dynamic occurs at the farmers market, but my eyes, at least so far, haven’t been bigger than my countertop or fridge. Still, my biggest lack of control is around tomatoes. Especially when they’re gorgeous little cherry tomatoes, red and yellow and orange and purple and sometimes even black I buy, buy and buy some more without thinking too hard about how I’m going to dispatch them in my kitchen.

The difference, of course, is that they’re a heck of a lot more versatile than Luby’s leftovers ever could be, and they can hang out in the fridge for a good week or two before they even seem to think about faltering. They never go to waste.

How do I use and consume them? It’s hard to beat eating the little jewels raw, which is how the first pint or two usually goes, but at a certain point I need to do more than just pop them like candy or halve them for salads or grain bowls. Gazpacho is an obvious destination, and I’ve blended them with pine nuts and basil into a salad dressing, too. Once the heat gets applied, it’s usually either the broiler (for a standby salsa) or a skillet (for some veg stir-fry or another).

Then there’s pasta. You surely know the technique here: Just toss as many cherry tomatoes as you can, as many as you want, or maybe simply as many as you have, into a skillet where you’ve been sautéing garlic and onion, cook them till they burst, and pair them with your favorite noodles — tubes, bow ties or whatever shape you fancy at the moment.

I do it all the time without paying much attention to quantities or timing. But for an actual recipe to share with you, both of those things are critical, so I pulled out the scale, set my phone alarm, and started playing around. I wanted to strip the concept to its bare necessities while also pushing to make smart use of what might seem like an unreasonable amount of cherry tomatoes. The object: to get as much flavor into the sauce as possible with the least amount of effort.

I decided to skip the sautéing of the aromatics. Instead, while I boil pasta, I cook a full 3 pounds (up to 5 pints!) of whole cherry tomatoes in a deep skillet or Dutch oven until they start to burst and release their juices. Then I quickly mash them with a wooden spoon. Off the heat, I stir in a good amount of grated garlic and chopped basil. Then I toss the pasta and sauce, sprinkle with chopped walnuts for a little more texture (and protein), and serve. More basil, black pepper and olive oil can go on before serving, if you’d like.

One of the times I made the dish, I included a generous amount of pecorino Romano. It was tasty enough, but the cheese overtook the tomatoes, and the whole thing seemed to miss the point. Once I left it out, the sauce became just what I wanted, and just what I hope you’ll appreciate, too: a pure, bright, sweet-tart distillation of the flavor so many us just can’t get enough of every summer.

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Cherry Tomato Pasta

½ teaspoon fine salt, plus more as needed

1 pound dried rigatoni

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving

3 pounds (about 5 pints) red cherry tomatoes

6 garlic cloves, finely grated or pressed

2 cups (2 ounces) lightly packed fresh basil leaves, chopped or torn, plus more for serving

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for serving

1 cup (4 ounces) chopped walnuts

Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. Add the rigatoni and cook according to the package directions until al dente. Drain the pasta.

While the water is boiling, in a large Dutch oven or large (12-inch), deep skillet with a lid, heat the oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the tomatoes and ½ teaspoon of salt, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until they burst and release their juices, 10 to 12 minutes. Use a wooden spoon or potato masher to mash any tomatoes that are still holding their shape. Continue cooking until the sauce reduces and slightly thickens, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and cover to keep warm, if needed, while the pasta finishes cooking.

Add the garlic, basil and pepper, and stir until well combined. Add the pasta and toss until thoroughly coated in the sauce. Taste, and season with more salt as needed.

Divide the pasta among shallow bowls. Top with the walnuts, drizzle with more olive oil, sprinkle with more basil and black pepper, and serve warm.

Servings: 4-6 (makes about 10 cups)

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 4 days, preferably without the walnuts.

Substitutions: For rigatoni, use any dried pasta shape. For red cherry tomatoes, use any color cherry or grape tomatoes or a mix, or any larger tomatoes cut into chunks. For walnuts, use pecans, almonds, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds.

Nutritional information per serving (1⅔ cups), based on 6: 519 calories, 23 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 69 g carbohydrates, 163 mg sodium, 0 mg cholesterol, 15 g protein, 17 g fiber, 9 g sugar.

— Joe Yonan