Ads 468x60px

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Pasta with Tomato & Basil Sauce

An excellent choice for a holiday brunch. I cooked this today and the family just loved the flavours. My daughter couldn't resist the taste, ended up with a sparkling clean cutlery :).

Ingredients:
Red ripe tomato - 6 medium sized
Pasta (Penne rigate) - 250 gms
Extra virgin olive oil - 2 tbsp
Basil - ¾ cup
Garlic - 4-5 cloves, minced
Red chilly flakes - 1 tsp
Rosemary
Parmesan cheese
Salt to taste

Method:
Cut the tomatoes into half, remove most of the seeds using your fingers. Then cut them into quarters. Heat the oil in a pan, add garlic and the chilly flakes. Saute till the garlic gives off its aroma. Add tomatoes and cook on a high flame till the sauce thickens. With the help of a wooden spoon mash the tomato as much as possible. Add roughly chopped basil and salt. Cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat, roughly run the hand blender for ½ minute in the sauce to smooth any tomato chunks.

Cook the pasta (I used penne rigate here, but you could use any other pasta that you can get hold of) in abundant boiling water (add salt to the water) till done. Also add may be a 1 tbsp of oil into the boiling water. Drain the pasta, drizzle some olive oil into the pasta and mix it well with the sauce.

Serve with grated parmesan and sprinkle rosemary lightly over the top.