Pasta With Tomatoes & Basil

Yum!

I love pasta. It's such a quick thing to cook up and so cheap. Often if I'm serving dinner for friends I'll make pasta because it's an affordable and fun way to feed a bunch of people.

There are a bunch of things to do with it from making a pasta salad to making your own sauces or, my newest discovery (thanks to a friend's family), grilling it. So I'm surprised I have not posted a recipe with it before now.

I hope to soon have more pasta recipes up, but for now, in the spirit of summer, I would like to introduce you to my favorite summer pasta recipe. We call it pasta with tomatoes and basil, and it's probably our most common meal in the summer, especially during August when all the tomatoes in the garden are finally ripening.

Years ago, we found a recipe similar to this in one of our favorite cookbooks, Still Life With Menu (if you're looking for a great vegetarian cookbook you should really check this one out). Our version of the recipe is now quite different than the one from the book, but it served as great inspiration. Originally the recipe called for much more oil than I now use and chunks of brie cheese. We immediately cut down the oil content and started using havarti cheese instead of brie (I honestly can't remember why we made this substitution) and grated parmesan.

However, once I became vegan, I started to make it without cheese, and it still tastes amazing. I think it's even better this way actually. To me the cheese is unnecessary and just makes the meal feel heavier in my stomach, so I don't hesitate to leave it out. What I've started doing instead is adding red chili pepper flakes, but really the meal is great as is.  NOTE 1: I like to use whole wheat pasta rather than white. It's good, so if you haven't tried it yet, I strongly encourage you to.  NOTE 2: When I don't have fresh tomatoes I use canned. You'll need almost a whole can, with the juice drained off.

Pasta with Basil and Tomato

1 box of pasta

2 - 4 tomatoes (presuming you have large tomatoes. you'll need more if they're small)

1/3 cup chopped basil (approximately)

2 cloves garlic mashed

salt to taste

a generous grinding of black pepper

2 Tbl olive oil

a couple shakes of red pepper flakes (optional)

cook and drain pasta. while it cooks mash garlic with a little bit of salt in a bowl. chop tomatoes and basil and add to bowl. add cooked pasta, oil, and pepper. Serve!