Squashed Tomato Pasta Sauce

This week’s Cooking with Kids A to Z instead of a key ingredient is a category of food – we’re sharing food that is I is for Italian. Now we all LOVE Italian food in this house, whether it’s the more recognisable Pasta and Pizza so some of my husband’s favourite Fish dishes Italian food is a regular on the menu here and getting the kids involved in making the main course is one of the ways that we are trying to get them to taste new food and expand their limited taste. When our kids of different ages can also join in making the dish you know it’s ideal for introducing kids to cooking for the first time. This Squashed Tomato Pasta Sauce is ideal as we were able to make is with kids from Toddler Up in age and they all enjoyed it and loved the meal.

Ingredients needed for Squashed Tomato Pasta Sauce

6 cherry tomatoes per child
3 Salad Tomatoes per child
1 onion for all to share
Leaves from a basil plant
Olive Oil

Your choice of pasta cooked with enough to serve everyone

How to make Squashed Tomato Pasta Sauce

Place the cherry tomatoes for each child into a bowl – we use none breakable plastic ones especially with the youngest children, but you know your children best. Then they get squashing and squeezing.

As well as making a delicious pasta sauce this is a fantastic activity for fine motor skills, the squashing and squeezing of the cherry tomatoes. It was interesting to watch – T who is 4 was great at squeezing and squashing quickly demolishing the tomatoes in her dish, whereas H was great with the over-ripe cherry tomatoes but as soon as the less ripe tomatoes were in her dish you can see the strength that she needed to squish and squeeze them.

With all of the tomatoes squashed and squeezed they then need to be torn. Another fantastic fine motor activity for all of the kids – we’ve torn up paper before but tomatoes are a different matter and so much tougher than tissue paper and construction paper.

With all of the cherry tomatoes squeezed, squished and torn, the salad tomatoes need to be cut in half and then squeezed as if you’re squeezing a lemon – we don’t have a lemon squeezer so instead we used our hands.

With the tomatoes juiced then tear up the flesh again.

Because in the same day we’d made our Easy Kids Bruschetta’s we had left over onions that they had chopped up we also added them to our tomatoes.

When the pasta was finished cooking pour that onto a plate – before adding the squashed tomatoes sauce – tear up some basil leaves and mix in a splash of olive oil.

Pour the sauce over the top of the cooked pasta and then serve.

More I is for Italian Food recipes from the Cooking with Kids Bloggers

Squashed Tomato Pasta Sauce – You are Here!

Wedding Soup Recipe – Sugar Aunts

Ensalada Caprese – Still Playing School