Tomato Basil Salsa Cruda with Pasta

By Venzie

Ingredients

• 2 cups tomatoes, seeded and roughly diced [about 3 small]
• 1 small to medium clove garlic, minced [see Kitchen Notes]
• 1/4 cup [packed] basil, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt, freshly ground pepper to taste
• 6 to 8 ounces uncooked pasta [I used linguine]

Preparation

Step 1

Start a large pot of water to cook pasta. While water heats, prep and combine tomatoes, garlic, basil and olive oil in a large bowl and gently stir to combine. You can seed or not seed the tomatoes, but not doing so adds more moisture to the finished dish, making it kind of soupy. Set aside to let the flavors combine. DO NOT ADD SALT at this point. Salt leeches liquid from cut tomatoes and will create a soupy mess of a sauce.

Salt boiling water generously and cook pasta according to package directions. I like long pastas for this dish—spaghetti, linguine, fettuccine—but you can really use any pasta you like. Shells, farfalle or penne would play nicely too. Cappellini [angel hair pasta] may be a little on the fragile side for all the tossing you need to do.

Drain pasta and add to bowl with salsa cruda mixture. Start by adding maybe 2/3 of the cooked pasta, add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste and toss to combine. If the mixture looks like it could use more pasta, add accordingly and toss to combine. Now that you’re adding salt, be generous with it. You’re working with non-processed ingredients, so you don’t have to worry about hidden sodium, and salt really brings out the flavor of the ingredients. Be generous with the pepper too, just because.

Divide between two pasta bowls and serve. If you’re using long pasta, use tongs to transfer to bowls. You will mainly get pasta, which is actually a good thing. Then you’re left with mainly the tomato mixture to spoon on top. Beautiful!