Yesterday, I saw one of my good girlfriends post photos of her tomato crop. She had so many little cute little tomatoes! This got me thinking about a staple recipe at my home, a rustic tomato basil rigatoni. It’s the perfect way to put those fresh Summer tomatoes and sweet basil into a simple, quick, and DELICIOUS meal. I’m pretty partial to serving it on Sundays for dinner, but it’s so quick and easy, it could be a weeknight meal just as well.
If you’ve been around HIH for a while, you’ll recall the HIH Country Pasta Carbonara and the Weeknight Chicken + Broccoli Pasta. While very different from this rustic tomato basil rigatoni recipe, they all have a FREE common ingredient. Pasta water! Starchy pasta water is the key ingredient to the pasta and sauce coming together into perfect harmony.
Speaking of harmony, I wrote this recipe intentionally as a recipe for two. I love sharing this meal with my husband. It gives me Lady and the Tramp vibes if you’re familiar with the old Disney Movie. If you want to scale the recipe up to feed more people, just click the handy “x2 or x3,” buttons in the recipe and all of the measurements will be scaled up for you. Pretty handy, HUH?
Keys to Success
- Don’t let the garlic burn. Brown garlic = delicious, burnt garlic = bitter. By adding the garlic later in the recipe, right before the tomatoes start bursting and giving off their juice, will reduce the opportunities for the garlic to burn. You’ll also want to stir pretty often.
- Undercook the rigatoni, at first. The rigatoni will continue to cook in the sauce. If you cook the pasta all the way in the pasta water, you’ll end up with overcooked pasta by the time you serve the pasta. I like to shave 1-2 minutes off the bottom of the cooking range on the pasta’s packaging.
- Salt to taste. If you salted your pasta water enough, it will translate to the pasta. Additionally, the parmesan cheese is very salty. For my tastes, just a touch of salt added at the end is just right. You may want more, you may find it to be salty enough. Just keep in mind the other salty components and taste your dish along the way before adding more salt.
- Plan ahead to keep your pasta water. I can’t tell you how many times my pasta has finished cooking and I know I need to keep my pasta water and I don’t have a vessel ready to strain the water into. Be better than me and don’t forget to have a vessel ready to catch your pasta water when you strain the pasta water. I could also solve this problem with one of these fancy pasta pots, maybe I’ll add that to the Christmas list!
Rustic Tomato Basil Rigatoni
Equipment
- 1 chef's knife
- 1 large high sided skillet or everyday pan
- 1 large pot
- 1 wooden spoon/spatula
- 1 ladle
Ingredients
- 10 oz grape tomatos, one carton
- 1 shallot, sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
- 5 large basil leaves, chiffonade or finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flake, optional
- 3 cups rigatoni pasta
- ¾ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese, grated
- salt
Instructions
- Start a pot of pasta water in a large pot. Add enough salt the water tastes salty.
- Heat the large skillet or everyday pan over medium heat. Once hot, add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, followed by the shallot. Cook the shallot until soft and translucent.
- Add the tomatoes to the pan. Give the tomatoes a quick stir in the olive oil, then let them sit for about 30 seconds. The tomatoes will begin to blister and burst.
- When the tomatoes start to burst, turn the heat down to medium-low and add the garlic, cook until fragrant. Use the back of the wooden spoon to press on the tomatoes help release their juices into the pan. As the juices release, the brown caramelized bits at the bottom of the pan will soften, use the back of the wooden spoon to scrape them up. Continue until all tomatoes have burst.
- Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook 1 minute less than package instructions.
- Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, oregano and crushed red pepper flake (optional) to the tomatoes and continue to stir scraping any caramelization off the bottom of the pan.
- Just before the pasta is finished cooking, take a ladle of the hot pasta water and add it to the tomatoes. Stir to combine, again scraping any caramelized bits from the bottom of the pan.. Strain the pasta, reserving the pasta water. You'll want the hot pasta water close to your skillet with a ladle.
- Taste the sauce, adjust for seasoning with salt and black pepper to your tastes.
- Add the drained pasta to the tomatoes and stir well to coat the pasta with the sauce. Stir in ½ the basil. Add the parmesan cheese and continue to stir. If the sauce seems dry, add more pasta water, ¼ cup at a time.
- Serve immediately topped with more parmesan cheese and the remaining basil.
Nutrition
Affiliate disclosure:
Honey, I’m Hungry Blog is a member of SkimLinks, an affiliate advertising program which allows me to link to a number of reputable websites as a mean of earning advertising fees. Affiliate links will begin like this: https://go.skimresources.com…..
Discover more from THE HONEY, I'M HUNGRY BLOG
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.