Pasta with cherry tomatoes and basil

I am so happy to be here with you today, sharing one of our newest family favourite recipes with all of Maggie's readers here at Passionately Artistic! 


 My name is Dawn, and I write the blog Addicted to Recipes.  I started writing my blog after I made my new year's resolution to make (at least) one new recipe each week for me and my family.  Nearly 9 months later and the resolution has been a success!  I share my recipes with my readers so that they too can find inspiration and new dishes to try!  

I sure hope you will come by and check out some of our favourite recipes, such as the Sweet & Spicy Baby Back Ribs, Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork Sandwiches, and German Apple Cake.  I also host a weekly recipe link party called Scrumptious Sunday - if you have recipes to share you are more than welcome to join in too!



Now, onto today's recipe!

My most favourite cookbook series is the Whitewater Cooks series. A very dear friend introduced the series to me, and she has given me two of the books as gifts. My husband bought me the other. The recipes are great, the photos are lovely, overall the books are just beautiful. The author is from British Columbia (the province where I live) and she uses ingredients that we can easily find, even people who are from smaller towns can find her ingredients. It's great!

Last summer we had an abundance of tomatoes in our garden. Last year was a stellar tomato crop, our little garden gave us over 1500 cherry tomatoes (4 different varieties)...I stopped counting at 1500 (yes...I counted, I couldn't believe our crop!). Everyone had a gazillion tomatoes, so I wasn't able to share our bounty as much as I would have liked. I turned some into salsa (YUM!) and we ate a lot of salads with tomatoes. Then I found the recipe for Summertime Pasta in the Whitewater Cooks book. And it became an instant favourite! Here is the recipe (it is SO EASY):

Ingredients:

½ cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, sliced or minced (or more if you love garlic)
2 cups cherry tomatoes cut in half
Sea salt (to taste)
Fresh pepper (to taste)
Fresh basil, chopped (to taste)
1 cup asiago cheese
1 package spaghetti or other thin pasta



Directions:



In the morning, cut cherry tomatoes and chop basil, put into a large bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste (we use Epicure’s Chili Garlic Sea Salt and the 4 Pepper Blend). In a frying pan over medium low heat, heat olive oil. Add garlic to the olive oil. Cook for about a minute, just long enough to infuse the garlic and oil. Transfer oil and garlic to the bowl of tomatoes. Cover with plastic wrap and let the mixture sit at room temperature all day.

At dinnertime, cook and drain your pasta. Add the pasta to the tomato mixture and toss to combine. Serve with freshly grated asiago cheese. If you find asiago cheese too strong, try a different cheese, such as parmesan or mozzarella.

We usually serve the pasta with a grilled chicken, makes for all around nice, healthy meal.






























VERDICT:
This dish is a HUGE hit in our house, and I can see it being made regularly over the next while with the tomatoes being harvested. And it is so easy to make - start it in the morning, let it sit all day, cook up some pasta and grill some meat and dinner is done, just like that!

I sure hope that you enjoy this meal as much as we do.  My biggest thanks to Maggie for this wonderful opportunity!

- Dawn, Addicted to Recipes


 

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