Crudaiola

This is one of my favorites. It's a recipe I found in Bon Apetit several years ago, and I don't remember any more details than that. It's really summery and fresh and EASY. The ingredients and preparation are simple and the outcome is, well, perfect.

Taglierini with Fresh Tomato and Basil Sauce

(Crudaiola=Raw, or maybe raw sauce, or raw ingredients...

I don't know, I don't speak Italian.)

Ingredients:

1.75 lb plum tomatoes, chopped

1 C basil, coarsely chopped

0.5 C pine nuts, toasted

0.5 C olive oil

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped (I use 3, and put them through the garlic press)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 lb taglierini or linguini (I often use linguini fini)

0.5 C grated parmesan

Combine the first seven ingredients in a large bowl. Toss to blend. Cover and refrigerate at least thirty minutes, up to three hours.

Cook pasta. Drain, reserving some of the pasta cooking water. Return the pasta to the pot.

Add your tomato-basil sauce to the pasta in the pot.

Toss the sauce and pasta over medium-high heat until heated through, and the sauce coats the pasta thickly, adding enough reserved pasta cooking water (by half-cupfuls) to moisten, about four minutes.

Add 0.5 C parmesan cheese and toss to blend.

Season with salt and pepper.

Prep time: pretty quick. Serves: about six.

No pictures of the finished project--off to an annoying quarterly meeting right after dinner and budgeted my time poorly!