The other night we got home from band practice at 9:30- it was late, I was tired, and hungry, but I just didn’t feel like eating take out. The pantry was pretty empty, I must admit. No tortillas, no bread and olive oil, I was even out of corn to pop. (I go crazy for home made pop corn with truffle salt) Obviously, I was craving carbs!
Sometimes dinner is all about the KISS method, but that does not mean that it can’t be beautiful and divinely tasty. It turned out I had some lovely farmers market tomatoes- even one lonely green one and a bunch of thyme and some hot chilies as well as a sweet red pepper. I decided to make flavored olive oil to toss with pasta- a dressed up pomodoro if you will. It turned out so light and lovely and the hot and sweet peppers contrasted perfectly with my buttery olive oil and the fresh thyme and bitey garlic.
This whole dish should only take as long as the pasta takes to cook plus 3-5 minutes on top of that. In my case, dinner was on the table in 20 minutes since I had to take some photos, but would have been served in about 14 otherwise. I’m so lucky Joshua loves lukewarm food!
- INGREDIENTS
- 1 package bucatini (or spaghetti)
- 1 lb tomatoes
- ½ c extra virgin olive oil
- fresh spicy chilies (2 for me fewer if you like things less spicy)
- dried red chilies
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 sweet red pepper
- 10 sprigs of fresh thyme
- INSTRUCTIONS
- Cook pasta according to instructions
- Rough chop garlic
- Slice hot chilies into strips
- Pour olive oil into a small saucepan on medium-low heat
- Add garlic, fresh hot chilies dried chilies & sprigs of thyme to the olive oil- cook for 5-10 minutes not allowing to boil
- Dice tomatoes & sweet red peppers
- Drain Pasta- reserving some of the cooking liquid
- Add pasta back to cooking pot add tomatoes, & sweet red peppers
- Strain flavored oil through sieve & pour ½ of the oil over pasta and toss. Test to see if pasta is coated add more oil and/or cooking liquid 1 tbsp at a time to form sauce.
- To serve, you can top with some of the the peppers and chilies from the flavored oil and a little cheese if you like.
This looks perfect! Pasta ia definitely my favorite meal and I think I know what we will be having for dinner tonight now!