We had a meatless pasta dish this week and it was packed withs o much flavor and only a few ingredients. I love the taste of fresh basil and what makes it even better is that I can just walk out my back door and snip some off of my plant. I will say my basil plant is tiny so I have had to be a little bit more patient this year but I guess we are getting too much rain for this little guy. I cut some of the ingredients in half and we still had enough for 4-5 servings! Jeez Louise!
ingredients
• kosher salt & freshly ground pepper
• 8 oz short rigatoni
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 1 small yellow squash
• 1 lb ripe tomatoes (I used the ones on the vine), chopped
• handful fresh basil leaves, chopped
• handful of grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
directions
1. Bring a large pot of salted water up to a boil. Tip: It goes faster if you first fill the pot with hot water (from the tap) and second, if you keep the pot covered until it comes up to a boil. Pour in the pasta and cook according to the package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup - 1 cup of the cooking water in a mug and then drain the pasta.
2. While the pasta is cooking, slice the squash with a mandolin on the 1/8" setting. Pile the long slices on top of one another and then slice in strips length wise. Combine the squash, tomatoes, olive oil, 1 tsp salt & pepper, garlic and basil in a large bowl. Toss until well combined.
3. Add the Parmesan and mozzarella to the bowl as well and mix until evenly distributed then add the hot pasta and mix thoroughly. Add some cooking water to the bowl to moisten as needed. Taste, and season with S&P if needed. Serve in shallow bowls and top with a slight drizzle of olive oil and some Parmesan.
My advice is to chop up all of your ingredients, measure everything and get it all ready to go before you start mixing and cooking things, etc. The only real cooking in this meal is boiling the water. So, if you have all of your ingredients ready to go I'd say this dinner would come together in 15 minutes or so. This dish will come to room temperature pretty quickly and it's best that way or served cold because you won't lose the consistency of the juicy ripe tomatoes. We had leftovers for lunch the next day and it was great cold! I think cherry or grape tomatoes wold be just as delicious as well. The original recipe calls for heirloom tomatoes but they are really pricey at my local store so I just picked up the ones that were on sale.
This recipe was adapted from Food Network Magazine.
Enjoy!
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