Recipe: tomato basil pasta

Aside from Samantha Brown’s travel guides, another favorite of mine is Jamie at Home, English chef Jamie Oliver’s cooking at home series. He has his own garden where he grows the fruits, vegetables and herbs used in his recipes featured in the series. Inspired with Jamie’s home-grown herbs, I bought several herbs during my recent trip to Tagaytay.

One of the herbs I bought is basil. I believe this is a Genovese Basil, also called Sweet Basil, the most common variety.

Here’s the recipe of the Tomato Basil Pasta I made for the family last night.

Serves 4 to 6 hungry people.

Ingredients

• 8 medium, ripe, tomatoes, chopped
• 10 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
• 250 grams penne pasta (any type of pasta would do)
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped (add more if you want a more garlicky flavor)
• 4 tbsp. olive oil
• Mozeralla cheese (I used about 100grams)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Let’s cook!

• Cook the pasta until al dente.
• Add olive oil and garlic in the sauce pan over high heat. Sauté until the garlic releases its aroma then add the tomatoes. Do not burn the garlic!
• Lower the heat and let the tomatoes soften for about 5 minutes. Add a little water (or olive oil) if you want more sauce. You can adjust the cooking time depending on how soft you want the tomatoes. I like them less mushy and chunkier.
• Add the pasta, basil and mozzarella cheese to the sauce. Stir well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

 Try the Tomato Basil Pasta with roasted chicken. It's yummy!

Let me know if you’ve tried this recipe.

Happy eating!