Orecchiette with Simple Tomato Sauce

Orecchiette with Tomato Sauce

I was so happy today when in Whole Foods I discovered they now have whole wheat orecchiette! Yeah! This is one of my favorite pasta shapes, but since I couldn’t find it in whole wheat I would only use it on “special” occasions. So of course I had to make it immediately (well, not in the store, but today). Hopefully they will read this and keep it in stock regularly just for me…

I decided to make a simple tomato sauce to go with the orecchiette. I started by sauteing some onions and garlic with Aleppo pepper (a wonderful slightly-spicy red chili pepper), a littler turmeric, Celtic sea salt, and fresh ground pepper.

Onions and Garlic Sauteing with Aleppo Pepper

Chopped Tomatoes

Then I chopped up some baby tomatoes and added them in to the sauce. After simmering for a while, they got all melty and released all their yummy tomato juices.

Simple Tomato Sauce

My lovely orecchiette had been cooking, so I added some of the pasta water to thicken the sauce.

Orecchiette

After draining the pasta, I spooned some of the sauce over the orecchiette and enjoyed the whole wheat goodness in a great pasta shape. Yummy and healthy!

Whole Wheat Orecchiette with Simple Tomato Sauce - yummy and healthy!