Spaghetti with small tomatoes, garlic, basil and chiles

This is the perfect summer pasta: light, flavorful, and fresh. The recipe literally lists all the ingredients. It does not take much to make a great pasta if the ingredients are perfect. For this recipe, tomatoes are cooked in two ways: into a sauce for flavour and barely cooked for freshness.

This book is one of my favourites for a variety of vegetarian recipes. The chef's twists on vegetables want me to cook the entire book, and we will eventually get there. Each recipe has been fabulous, with an excellent combination of ingredients and the perfect recipes to highlight each vegetable; this is a cookbook I should be cooking from every day.

For more recipes from this cookbook, click here.

Ingredients:

1-1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

3 cups heirloom tomatoes, or any other variety of good flavored tomatoes, diced fine 1 teaspoon sugar

2 cups cherry tomatoes, in different colors if available

1/2 teaspoon Calabrian chile powder, or any chile flakes

1 handful fresh basil, cut into strips

Salt and pepper to taste

10-12 oz. 2mm/#4 spaghetti pasta or a variety of your choice

Fresh basil, cut into strips

Parmesan cheese

Heat the oil in a pot and add the minced garlic. Cook on medium heat till golden, about 2 minutes. Add the heirloom tomatoes, sugar, chiles, salt and pepper and cook into a sauce for about 15 minutes. Add the whole cherry tomatoes and simmer for about 5-7 minutes till they partially cook and their skins crack. If the sauce is too thick and begins to stick to the bottom of the pan, add a touch of water. You, however, want to keep it reasonably thick. Take off the stove and stir in the basil—taste for salt, chiles and herbs.

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the packet. When the pasta is al dante, transfer about 1-2 cups of the cooking liquid to the tomato sauce and drain the pasta. Add the drained pasta to the sauce and mix in well. You should have a light coating of the sauce on the pasta.

Serve topped with fresh basil and Parmesan cheese.