When I was a child, there was always one particular tomato dish that was the go to and easy to make dinner. It is a simple dish with only seven ingredients. And that is including the salt and oil. This is a severely addicting one too because of how easy, clean tasting, and good it makes you feel when eating. Tomato basil pasta is perfect for your go to cooking arsenal.
Younger days
As a child my mom would clean peoples houses for a living. Because she did this, she met a lot of very interesting people and became friends with them too. In that, they would often make her something to eat while she worked which introduced her to many different types of foods. I remember her coming home one day and saying that she had tried octopus for the first time.
Now we were always around food as my family was very much into cooking. I remember very fondly watching many different cooking shows with my mom. We never missed an episode of Iron Chef. This is of course the first iteration that made it to the United States in the beginning of the 2000’s. So we would watch and learn new techniques we had never heard of from the likes of many different chefs. Back then, Iron Chef was the only real competition cooking show. Everything else was meant to teach you. To get you to love food for what it is and does to people.
The good ole days
There would be marathon runs of individual chefs shows and you would learn so much. Shows like Good Eats with Alton Brown taught me so much. Basic skills like how to chiffonade basil or how to julienne an onion. You would learn about different flavors from all around the world that you had never heard of before on No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. Im actually watching Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown as I am typing this. There would also be shows entirely based on how to make meals for entertaining a large group, or making a simple dinner for two. This meal was born from shows like this.
I must give credit. This is my mothers recipe. And it is a really good one too. I would still call it a go to meal when you just want to make something clean and simple. It will make you feel good too.
All you need are some small tomatoes (preferably cherry tomatoes), pasta, garlic, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, and salt. It is an immensely delicious and simple dish.
The Tomato Basil Pasta
Start off by placing a medium sized pot of heavily salted water on the stove at high heat. While that is coming up to a boil, you will want to prepare your other ingredients to make cooking that much quicker and easier.
Start by cutting the cherry tomatoes in half and placing them in a bowl off to the side. Cut your mozzarella into about half inch cubes and also place to the side. (You may also use pearled mozzarella in place of cubing a ball of the cheese. It works just as well.)
Mince the garlic by crushing it with the flat side of a knife. Do so by Placing the flat side of the knife over the the clove of garlic and coming down on it briskly with the palm of your hand. Then chop your garlic into tiny pieces. This does not need to be done with a lot of precision. We’re just making the garlic nice and small. We’re going for a nice rustic meal here. Not some french Michelin starred restaurant quality for looks. This is just good home cooking here.
Mini Lesson
Next is the herb. Not that herb. Basil! Take about ten to fifteen (more never hurts) leaves of basil and place them on top of each other. Now roll them up like you are rolling a cigar. Slice from the side into small strips. This is called a chiffonade. Place the chiffonade of basil of to the side now with the rest of the mise en place.
Once the pasta reaches a nice al dente texture pour it out into a colander or strainer. Al dente just means that it is still very slightly hard. And I mean very slightly. Let the pasta rest. do not wash under water or oil it! Washing pasta removes the starches and glutens that will help your sauce. And oiling it will prevent any sauce or delicious flavors from sticking to the pasta.
To the pan
Place a wide bottomed sauté pan, preferably a 10 inch pan over medium heat and put about an 1/8 cup of olive oil in the pan as it heats up. Once fully heated up, add the tomatoes. Allow them to cook for about 5 minutes to blister slightly.
As soon as the tomatoes are nice and lightly blistered, add that garlic. This is gong to be a quicker process now because we need that garlic to still have a fresh flavor. we are not going for caramelized here. Fresh flavors only!!! So stir gently but constantly for about 2 minutes.
After the 2 minutes, add that pasta and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Preferably kosher, but have fun with it. Use what you have. No worries intended in this care free time. This is meant to be a learning of the basics here.
Start tossing that pasta now. Please do not be afraid to just use a spoon or tongs for this. No hero’s if you are not used to sautéing things. (Fun fact, Sauté means “to jump” in french.)
Now that it is all fully mixed together in all of its tomatoey goodness, turn the heat off. Let it cool for a minute and add that mozzarella now! Slowly stir it into the pasta. Not too much or it will definitely turn into one large mass of cheese. Not always a bad thing. Add the basil and gently stir in until it spreads throughout the pasta.
Top it off
Now all there is to do is scoop it onto a plate, top with a little more basil, and enjoy.
Keep this recipe in you arsenal for the future for those nights that you may have to feed some people but don’t want all of the fuss. Cooking doesn’t always have to take so long. Sometimes we just want a good meal and to binge watch something without making a frozen meal.
Fresh tomato basil pasta
Equipment
- 1 large saute pan
- 1 strainer
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound uncooked pasta
- 1/2 pound cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 pound fresh mozzarella
- 3 cloves garlic
- 15 leaves fresh basil
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- salt
Instructions
- Start off by placing a medium sized pot of heavily salted water on the stove at high heat. While that is coming up to a boil, you will want to prepare your other ingredients to make cooking that much quicker and easier.
- Start by cutting the cherry tomatoes in half and placing them in a bowl off to the side. Cut your mozzarella into about half inch cubes and also place to the side. (You may also use pearled mozzarella in place of cubing a ball of the cheese. It works just as well.)
- Mince the garlic by crushing it with the flat side of a knife. Do so by Placing the flat side of the knife over the the clove of garlic and coming down on it briskly with the palm of your hand. Then chop your garlic into tiny pieces. This does not need to be done with a lot of precision. We’re just making the garlic nice and small. We’re going for a nice rustic meal here. Not some french Michelin starred restaurant quality for looks. This is just good home cooking here.
- Next is the herb. Not that herb. Basil! Take about ten to fifteen (more never hurts) leaves of basil and place them on top of each other. Now roll them up like you are rolling a cigar. Slice from the side into small strips. This is called a chiffonade. Place the chiffonade of basil of to the side now with the rest of the mise en place.
- Once the pasta reaches a nice al dente texture pour it out into a colander or strainer. Al dente just means that it is still very slightly hard. And I mean very slightly. Let the pasta rest. do not wash under water or oil it! Washing pasta removes the starches and glutens that will help your sauce. And oiling it will prevent any sauce or delicious flavors from sticking to the pasta.
- Place a wide bottomed sauté pan, preferably a 10 inch pan over medium heat and put about an 1/8 cup of olive oil in the pan as it heats up. Once fully heated up, add the tomatoes. Allow them to cook for about 5 minutes to blister slightly.
- As soon as the tomatoes are nice and lightly blistered, add that garlic. This is gong to be a quicker process now because we need that garlic to still have a fresh flavor. we are not going for caramelized here. Fresh flavors only!!! So stir gently but constantly for about 2 minutes.
- After the 2 minutes, add that pasta and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Preferably kosher, but have fun with it. Use what you have. No worries intended in this care free time. This is meant to be a learning of the basics here.
- Start tossing that pasta now. Please do not be afraid to just use a spoon or tongs for this. No hero’s if you are not used to sautéing things. (Fun fact, Sauté means “to jump” in french.)
- Now that it is all fully mixed together in all of its tomatoey goodness, turn the heat off. Let it cool for a minute and add that mozzarella now! Slowly stir it into the pasta. Not too much or it will definitely turn into one large mass of cheese. Not always a bad thing. Add the basil and gently stir in until it spreads throughout the pasta.
- Now all there is to do is scoop it onto a plate, top with a little more basil, and enjoy.
Nutrition
