Tomato Basil & Garlic Pasta
Today’s post is a simple, yet delicious pasta recipe. When I say simple, I am talking about a 30 minute weeknight meal. Tomato basil and garlic pasta is one of my weeknight go-to meals. Healthy and fresh, this recipe is one that won’t leave you feeling bad going for seconds (or thirds!). Get ready as I walk you through how to master this incredible dish.
Ingredients
A key aspect to this recipe is fresh ingredients. There aren’t too many ingredients either – all that you’ll need is the following:
- Cherry tomatoes
- Garlic
- Basil
- Olive Oil
- Salt
- Pepper
That’s it! I recommend using the freshest ingredients that are available to you as well. If possible, no canned tomatoes, dried basil, or jarred garlic – not that there is anything wrong with those, but for this recipe, fresh is best.
Preparation
Preparation for this recipe is extremely simple. First, heat some olive oil over medium heat and add a couple of basil stems and smashed garlic cloves. When the basil stems and garlic cloves start to brown, remove them from the pan. This step is to infuse the olive oil with flavor. While this step is going on, you can slice all of the cherry tomatoes in half, mince some garlic cloves, and roughly slice the basil leaves. Just like that, it’s time to cook!
Cooking
Now that the olive oil is infused, add the halved cherry tomatoes to the pan. You’re going to want to eventually smash them up a bit but that will be easier once they’ve cooked for a little bit. Add some salt and pepper and allow the tomatoes to start to soften. Once the cherry tomatoes have softened a bit, go ahead and add the garlic and basil. Mixing from time to time, the goal here is to allow all of these flavors to “marry” together for a bit. You can honestly let this go for as little or a long as you’d like. The longer you allow it to simmer, the more the tomatoes will break down and become more saucy vs chunky. I like mine to be somewhere in the middle – saucy but with some chunks (see picture below).
Time to eat
Once the sauce is cooked to your liking, serve it over pasta with some freshly grated pecorino romano cheese. Other types of cheese work just fine as well but pecorino romano is my favorite for pasta dishes. And that’s all there is to it. In under 30 minutes, you can make an extremely fresh and delicious pasta sauce that will give off “Italy vibes”. I hope that you enjoy this recipe and that it will be added to your weeknight meal rotation. Let me know what you think in the comments. Buon appetito!
*Optional*: you can add some of the pasta water to the sauce before serving as well. This will give more flavor while also aiding in having the sauce stick to the pasta when serving.
Tomato Basil & Garlic Pasta
Ingredients
Olive Oil Infusion
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 2 Basil stems
- 2 Garlic cloves smashed
Tomato Basil & Garlic Sauce
- 1-2 lbs Cherry tomatoes sliced in half
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
- 4-6 Garlic cloves minced; use as many as you'd like
- Handful of fresh basil sliced
Instructions
Olive Oil Infusion
- Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the basil stems and smashed garlic cloves.
- When the basil stems and smashed garlic cloves have started to brown, remove them from the pan.
Tomato Basil & Garlic Sauce
- Add the halved cherry tomatoes to the infused olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes, smashing the tomatoes up as they soften.
- Once the tomatoes have softened a bit, add the garlic and basil. Allow to simmer, mixing from time to time, so that the flavors "marry" together.
- Allow to simmer for as little or as long as you would like. The longer you simmer, the more saucy vs chunky it will become.
- When the sauce is cooked to your liking, serve over pasta and enjoy!
