sAy AnYtHiNg: Summer Yumminess

May 21, 2008

Summer Yumminess

Yes, "Summer" is still a stretch in these parts. However, it has been sunny, flowers are blooming everywhere, and hope springs eternal that the warmth is right around the corner. All the sunshine gave me a craving for one of my favorite pasta meals of all time. It is a recipe I created, but it is modeled after a dish I love, love, love at a great Italian restaurant near where we live. My husband and I have enjoyed this dish 3 times in the last 7 days!

I decided to share the recipe with all of you lovely people, and lo and behold it's Wednesday. That means that for the second week in a row I have a "Works for me Wednesday" ! Shut up! This tip/recipe comes with a little caveat, however. The way I cook is rather intuitive and involves very little measuring. Therefore, if you enjoy cooking in this manner you will love this recipe because it is easy, delicious, and the variations on the theme are endless. However, if you are a person who needs a recipe with specific measurements, you will probably not love this recipe so very much.

Here it goes:

"A Cool Sauce Over Hot Pasta"

Ingredients:

Grape Tomatoes or any other tomato that is looking particularly delicious ( as many as you like)

1/3 of a small Onion

2 cloves Fresh Garlic, minced

1 1/2 ping pong ball size balls of Fresh Mozzarella

Several Fresh Basil Leaves

Olive Oil

White Balsamic Vinegar

Salt

Pepper

Your Favorite Pasta ( I like to use Linguine)

Chop tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, onion, and basil into a small dice. Toss together with garlic, a splash of olive oil, a splash of white balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste. Set aside. Cook pasta (you will determine how much pasta you cook based on the number of servings you need). Once pasta is cooked, drain and toss with a small amount of olive oil. Divide pasta on to plates. Top hot pasta with the cool sauce and serve.

The ingredients above will top approximately 2 servings of pasta, of course, just increase quantity for extra servings. Also, get creative. Last night I was out of fresh mozzarella, so I used feta cheese instead and added black olives and very finely diced cucumber.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. I will give you one warning...you will probably have a little tiny bit of dragon breath the next morning, but it's worth it!

Don't forget to go here for more great "Works for me Wednesday" tips. I love Shannon's allowance tip today!