By Alexa Weibel, The New York Times

Sep­a­rat­ed from per­fec­tion by noth­ing more than a pinch of salt, ripe toma­toes inspire a very par­tic­u­lar type of sum­mer joy. In the last few weeks of the sea­son, many of us con­sume them rav­en­ous­ly, as if stor­ing sun­shine for the cold months ahead.

You’ll still find plen­ty at their peak right now, but even when the best of the sum­mer toma­toes are gone, cher­ry toma­toes can be count­ed on year-round to pro­vide more tex­ture than canned toma­toes and more taste than larg­er varieties.

“The big thing about cher­ries is that they pack more fla­vor than their larg­er brethren,” said Har­ry J. Klee, who stud­ies toma­to fruit devel­op­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Flori­da. “Think of a larg­er toma­to as the same amount of fla­vor with a lot more water.”

This spicy and saucy toma­to pas­ta leans upon that diminu­tive fruit for an easy week­night meal that deliv­ers bright fla­vor with min­i­mal effort. The sauce starts with just two fresh ingre­di­ents — cher­ry toma­toes and basil — and is fin­ished with toma­to paste and salty capers for a robust punch.

Toma­to paste for­ti­fies the fruit’s fla­vor, the same way a com­bi­na­tion of fresh lemon juice and zest might inten­si­fy the fla­vors of a cit­rus dessert. The tech­nique here is sim­ple: While your pas­ta water boils, heat some olive oil, squeeze in some toma­to paste, and cook until it dark­ens from brick red to a plum­my shade of red wine. This effec­tive­ly caramelizes the paste, exag­ger­at­ing the tomato’s nat­ur­al sweetness.

Sweat some gar­lic and red-pep­per flakes — or Alep­po pep­per, chiles de árbol, gochu­jang or any oth­er spicy condi­ment you have on hand — then sim­mer with cher­ry toma­toes and a splash of pas­ta water, and your pas­ta sauce is ready in 20 minutes.

Toss in your cooked pas­ta — orec­chi­ette will cup every­thing nice­ly, but any shaped pas­ta will suf­fice — and some torn basil, top with crispy fried capers and a dol­lop of ricot­ta, and you’ve got a quick pas­ta dish that will taste like sum­mer no mat­ter what sea­son it is.

RECIPE: Spicy and Saucy Cherry Tomato Pasta

Yield: 4 servings

Total time: 25 minutes

Ingre­di­ents

• Kosher salt and black pepper
• 4 table­spoons olive oil
• 3 table­spoons drained jarred capers
• 3 table­spoons toma­to paste
• 3 gar­lic cloves, thin­ly sliced
• 1 to 2 tea­spoons red-pep­per flakes (option­al)
• 16 ounces orec­chi­ette or oth­er shaped pasta
• 1 1/2 pounds cher­ry toma­toes, halved
• 1/2 packed cup thin­ly sliced fresh basil, plus small whole leaves, for garnish
• Fresh ricot­ta, shaved ricot­ta sala­ta, or grat­ed pecori­no or Parme­san, for gar­nish (option­al)

Prepa­ra­tion

1. Bring a large pot of salt­ed water to a boil over high heat.

2. In a large non­stick skil­let, heat 2 table­spoons oil over medi­um-high. Pat the capers dry, then add them to the skil­let and cook, stir­ring fre­quent­ly, until crisp, 3 to 4 min­utes. Using a slot­ted spoon, trans­fer the capers to a paper tow­el-lined plate.

3. Add the toma­to paste to the skil­let and cook over medi­um-high, stir­ring fre­quent­ly, until toma­to paste dark­ens in col­or and deep­ens in fla­vor, about 2 min­utes. Reduce the heat to medi­um, add the remain­ing 2 table­spoons oil, the gar­lic and red-pep­per flakes, if using, and cook, stir­ring fre­quent­ly, until gar­lic is soft­ened and fra­grant, about 2 minutes.

4. Add the pas­ta to the boil­ing water and reduce heat to medi­um. Cook accord­ing to pack­age instruc­tions until al dente.

5. While the pas­ta cooks, add the cher­ry toma­toes to the skil­let, sea­son with salt and pep­per and cook over medi­um-high, stir­ring, 5 min­utes. Add 2/3 cup pas­ta cook­ing water from the pot and cook, stir­ring occa­sion­al­ly, until the toma­toes start to fall apart and the liq­uid becomes saucy, about 10 minutes.

6. Drain the pas­ta, and trans­fer it to the skil­let with the sauce to com­bine. (If your skil­let is too full to accom­mo­date the pas­ta, you can trans­fer the cooked pas­ta back to the pot, then add the sauce to com­bine.) Stir in half the basil and sea­son to taste with salt and pepper.

7. Divide among plates or bowls and top with capers and remain­ing basil, plus cheese and whole basil leaves. Serve immediately.