Just Pasta

Hope you all had a great weekend. Well, I certainly did. We were over at a friend's house for lunch and I had the best pasta ever. I mean, we all know that pasta has got to be al dente, and then ofcourse now their is the wholemeal variety available. I know of some people who honestly think that it is rubbish, but I don't really mind the difference. I have got used to it. To be honest, I do like the firmness in the texture of wholemeal pasta - is rather nice. Nothing worse than over-cooked pasta - ghastly! and nothing more comforting than proper pasta (I mean not wholemeal) with just garlic, cherry tomatoes and onions. Oh yes, and the pasta has to be linguine (like spaghetti, but better) - with some good extra virgin olive oil. Good Comfort food, that it. Feel satisfied after eating that.

Well, coming back to the point of the best pasta I've ever had over the weekend. It was plain old Penne with Arriabata sauce (but with a slight difference). My friend's take on the traditional recipe was to use sun-dried tomatoes along with the fresh ones - just gives an immense depth to the tomato flavours. Also, she roasted the fresh tomatoes - and that just added more sweetness to the sauce. I loved it - so, courtesy of my friend, here goes the recipe. I do believe that a recipe (unless you are baking ofcourse!) is not meant to be followed as written - It's just a guideline - so, make modifications to suit your taste.

Do try it - finger licking good ! The recipe below is for 2 people:

Ingredients
Linguine /Spaghetti
8 fresh tomatoes (vine-ripened, if available)
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped (if you don't like the heat, then de-seed and take the stem off)
5 -6 pieces of sun-dried tomatoes (ready to eat variety)
1 tbsp tomato ketchup (apparently, a secret ingredient in most chef's kitchens)
sea salt to taste
1 bunch of fresh basil leaves
2 tbsp olive oil for cooking


Method

- Roast the tomatoes by placing them in the oven (in a baking dish) with some sea salt, pepper and thyme (Medium oven about 150 deg Cent or so for about 25 mins )

- Add oil to a hot pan (please do not heat up the oil)
- Quickly add the onions and cook until transparent
- The add the garlic (nothing worse than burnt garlic - so watch)
- Add the roasted tomatoes to the pan (with all the juices as well)
- Add the chilli
- Add the ketchup and the seasoning
- Now, add the sun-dried tomatoes
- Cook for about 15 mins or just until the sauce looks just right
- Blitz with a hand blender to achieve a no-bits consistency

- Bring a large pan of water to boil
- Add salt (Infact, Italians say that the water in which you cook the pasta should taste like the Mediterranean)
- Add the pasta and cook until just al dente
- Drain the water (don't try really hard to get rid of all the cooking water - leave some in the pasta)

-Now, add the pasta to the sauce (Italians say never do it the other way round - so, listen!)
- Top with fresh basil (chop just before adding, or it can go black at the edges)

Enjoy with a nice green salad... until next time...Happy Eating!