Pasta with Tomatoes and Basil

Ingredients

1. Prepare the fresh vegetables and herbs. If the basil is a little limp, put it in cold water beforehand.

   The tomato sauce for pasta should be made only from very fresh vegetables. Choose the ripest tomatoes with as few seeds as possible, so that there is a lot of tomato flesh, plus small cherry or so-called cocktail tomatoes, and garlic, ideally young, which is the tastiest. I recommend adding fresh hot red pepper to the sauce.

   

2. Choose a long pasta: fettuccine, tagliatelle, spaghetti or similar.

   If you like, you can make homemade noodles. Noodles with tomatoes are a very good option.

   

Tomato sauce

1. While the sauce is cooking, you can put the pasta water on the heat. It will come to a boil right by step 14.

2. Put the large ripe tomatoes in a bowl and cover with boiling water for 2-3 mins. Then cool them under cold running water.

   This makes it easy to peel off the thin, film-like skin.

3. Peel the cooled tomatoes, cut them in half and remove all the seeds.

   

4. Chop the tomato flesh with a knife. While you’re at it, cut out any bad spots and the white core where the stem was.

   Don’t make a purée. The tomato sauce for pasta tastes better when you can clearly feel pieces of tomato and the sauce doesn’t look like the Italian sauce salsa di pomodoro.

5. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan or saucepan over medium heat and let it warm up for 2-3 mins.

6. Add the tomato flesh to the oil and fry for 3-4 mins, stirring.

   

7. Add 1-2 pinches of a dry mix of aromatic herbs typical of Mediterranean cuisines to the tomatoes. Add a little salt and black pepper to taste.

   Good-quality mixes like this are sold in stores. They usually contain basil, savory, oregano, parsley, marjoram and others.

   

8. Peel the garlic cloves. Prepare the fresh hot pepper by removing the seeds and the white inner membranes. Chop the garlic and pepper with a knife.

   Don’t be afraid of the smell of garlic. The pasta sauce is simmered, and the garlic smell is almost imperceptible. This garlic pasta is perfectly fine for breakfast.

9. Add the chopped vegetables to the tomatoes and simmer, covered, over low heat for 5-6 mins.

   

10. Pick all the leaves off the green basil sprigs. Keep some for decorating the finished dish, since pasta with tomatoes and basil is served with whole green leaves. Chop the rest with a knife.

11. Take the lid off the pan and let the liquid cook off. The sauce should end up looking like guacamole: thick but slightly runny.

12. Add the chopped basil to the sauce, stir, and take off the heat after 1 min.

    

Pasta and serving

1. Bring 2.5-3 l of water to a boil, adding salt at a rate of 7 g per 1 l of water.

2. Cook the pasta until al dente; the cooking time is on the package. Drain the pasta in a colander.

3. Mix the pasta and sauce right in the pan.

   

4. Put the pasta with tomato sauce on plates.

5. Cut the small tomatoes in half and place them on top. Decorate the dish with the remaining green basil leaves.

   Pasta with tomatoes and basil is ready. Serve it for breakfast while it’s hot. As it cools, pasta loses its quality, so it’s best to eat right away. If you like it spicy, sprinkle the dish with a pinch of red pepper, or just use black pepper.