Pasta with Creamy Green Tomato Sauce

If your garden is overrun with unripe green tomatoes at the end of summer, this is the recipe. Green tomatoes (unripe, not Zebra heirlooms) have a tart, almost citrusy quality that works brilliantly in a creamy sauce: the acid cuts through the richness in a way ripe red tomatoes don’t quite manage.

The sauce is simple to an almost scandalous degree. Melted butter, sauteed onion, pureed green tomatoes, and a cup of heavy cream simmered together until thickened. Salt to taste, that’s it.

The finishing move lifts the dish out of basic-cream-pasta territory: chopped sun-dried tomatoes for concentrated sweet-savory pockets that contrast with the green tomato tang, plus coarsely crushed peppercorns (not ground pepper, crushed with a mortar or the flat of a knife) scattered on top for big, spicy crunchy bites. Fresh parsley finishes it.

Serve with linguine or spaghetti, which catches this sauce better than short shapes.

Chef Tips

• Puree green tomatoes in a blender or food processor; don’t skin-and-seed first.
• Simmer the sauce until it coats the back of a spoon; watery sauce pools on the plate.
• Crack peppercorns coarsely. Pre-ground pepper disappears into the dish; whole crushed kernels hit the palate.
• Salt the pasta water generously; this is the only way to season the pasta itself.

Variations

• Add a splash of white wine to the sauce after the onions soften.
• Stir in crumbled feta or grated Parmesan at the end for salty sharpness.
• Toss in cooked shrimp or a sprinkle of pine nuts for added protein and crunch.