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Reader Recipe: Felicity

CAPRESE PASTA

When the temperature rises, my eating habits change dramatically. Good-bye, my much-loved stews, pot roasts, and biscuits. Hello, fresh fresh fresh vegetables, piles of fruit, and chilled pastas. Felicity’s “Caprese Pasta” is excellent when served warm and drippy…but she told me that it would be even better the next day cold and eaten straight from the refrigerator, and she was right. I inhaled the rest around 9:30AM (sorry, sweetie-who-may-have-been-anticipating-leftovers).

What you need:

A small box of spaghetti
Three or four ripe tomatoes
Big handful of basil
Extra-virgin olive oil – the greener and thicker, the better (or basil-infused olive oil, if you can find it)
At least half a pound of best-quality bufala mozzarella
Salt and freshly ground pepper

What you do:

1. Cook spaghetti according to package directions.

2. While spaghetti is cooking, dice up the tomatoes and chop up the basil. Either chop up the mozzarella or pull it into strips – whichever you prefer. Put it all into a large serving bowl with about 1/4 cup olive oil and a ton of salt and pepper.

3. Drain pasta and add to bowl; toss to coat. Season a bit more, if necessary.

(Served with garlic bread.)



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April 21st, 2010 | Posted by Jordan | Eat | 7 Comments »
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  • http://www.thatgirlallison.com Allison

    looks so good! how many does that recipe serve?

  • jordanreid

    I got two big servings and a little leftover serving out of it, but I used a bag of fresh pasta, which makes less than a box. If you use a box, you should get 3-4 solid servings.

  • Felicity

    Yes, you can usually count on four good-sized servings. However, it's so good that I often double it so that we can eat the leftovers for a couple of days afterward. It is so awesome on the second night, cold, on a really hot night with an ice-cold glass of white wine. My favorite pasta ever.

    Also — if you live in the North, it's particularly amazing in August, when the tomatoes are locally grown and at their peak.

    Thanks for posting, Jordan!

  • Julia

    Here's a recipe for basil oil.

    2 cups fresh basil leaves
    2 cloves garlic, halved
    1 cup of olive oil

    Wash the basil leaves and dry them well. Prepare a bowl of ice water. Bring a saucepan of water to a boil, add the basil leaves, and blanch for 5 seconds. Scoop out the leaves and plunge immediately into the ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain out all the water and squeeze the leaves to get rid of as much water as possible. Dry them between layers of paper towels. Chop coarsely and place in a clean jar. Add the garlic.

    Gently heat the oil over low heat until warmed and fragrant–about 5 minutes. Be sure that it does not boil or burn. Remove from the heat and pour the oil into the jar over the basil leaves. Let cool, cover, and store in the refrigerator. Strain out the basil within a week.

  • jordanreid

    Thank you! I actually have a ton of basil sitting in my refrigerator…I'll have to try making this today.

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