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    Saturday, July 17, 2010

    A Summer Pasta Dish in the Middle of Winter

    I know tomatoes in the winter are not the greatest but the vine trussed tomatoes are not too bad. The ones I bought have a great colour.
    So I was siting in bed watching Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escapes. This week he was in Sardinia and Sicily. We have friends sailing around Europe...Currently I believe, in Corfu.
    This recipe is for the crew of Chinano. Here is Chinano last year in Croatia, about to raft up with us.
    Doesn't it all look wonderful
    So back to Rick. he discovered this very simple but outstanding Pasta Dish in Sicily. He loved it and had to make it. Good enough for Rick good enough for me.

    As you can see those tomatoes look pretty good for winter.
    So for a greedy couple for lunch
    200 gms spaghetti


    2 tbs Extra Virgin Olive oil
    3 cloves garlic peeled and smashed
    8 tomatoes on the vine
    Handful of mint leaves
    2 tbs capers washed and drained
    1/2 tsp chili flakes
    Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
    This sauce is not a really wet sauce, so first you need to cut the tomatoes in half
    and squeeze out the pips and juice.
    Set aside the pips and juice

    Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and add the spaghetti
    Cook to the manufacturers instructions


    Into a pan put the olive oil and pop the garlic cloves in to cook gently. No browning we are just infusing the oil.
    Remove garlic and discard


    Chop the tomatoes
    Add to the oil

    Chop the mint and rough chop the capers
    Add to the pan
    Add chili flakes and season with Salt and pepper
    Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary
    Drain the cooked pasta and add to the sauce

    Toss together and plate up

    A quick grind of Parmesan

    Eat and enjoy
    Easy Peasy, delicious and a bonus. What to do with the tomato juice?
    Make a Bloody Mary of course. 
    So pour the juices into a sieve to strain

    Big nip of Vodka into a glass with ice
    Top up with the strained juice

    Add grind of freshly black pepper
    Sprinkle of sea salt
    Dash Worcestershire Sauce
    Dash Tabasco
    Squeeze of lemon juice
    Serve and stir with a stick of Celery


    Larry, you will find it hard to make a better one than this.

    What a lunch!

    2 comments:

    Suzy said...

    Don't feel too bad about having to use the little hot house tomatoes on the vine. I live in the US..middle of summer and I don't have a ripe tomato in my garden. Very chilly rainy June! I'll be lucky to beat the frost :-) Luckily I do have a farmer's market that sells tomatoes from the eastern part of my state which is much hotter and drier. I'll be taking advantage of that. Nice pasta and nice bloody mary!

    Chris said...

    This is my favorite type of pasta dish! Love it. Haven't made it in sometime...think you've sparked something here.

    Thanks for stopping by and visiting my blog! ;)