Pasta (Penne and Fusilli) in herbed tomato sauce

Pasta (Penne and fusilli) in herbed tomato sauce

With this dish, I really appreciate our tiny herb garden more and more. It’s such a delight to have herbs freshly picked just before you needed it. I intend to make tomato sauce with sweet basil only but hubby had hand picked all the kinds of herbs that we had, before I can complain, a hand full of herbs greeted me in the kitchen window just adjacent to our tiny terrace garden. Knowing how pleased he was to have a little harvest for the night, hence I have to use all of them, but it really was great combination of flavors. So we had sweet basil, Thai basil, purple basil and parsley. The only herb that didn’t come from our garden is thyme, which I bought from the supermarket. So for the time being, I could say I graduated from using dried herbs to fresh herbs! (silently proud) he he.. The flavors are of huge difference from that of dried. The smell in the kitchen and the dish on the table is definitely alive!

For the pasta, I’ll explain you briefly why it is mixed penne and fusili. I was more than demanding to ask hubby what kind of pasta he likes for the night, so he had a choice of spaghetti, penne, fusilli, boat tie or ribbon and fettuccini. He chose quickly said “penne!” Only to find out that I don’t have enough for the 2 of us. Hence, I have to choose another kind, which I wouldn’t mind having mixed them together with the same sauce. I don’t think it’s forbidden to mix pasta, is it? If it is forbidden by Italians, then sorry for that. I’m just trying to make our dinner.

Anyways, I wont leave you without the recipe, so here it is… its just as easy as ABC.

Ingredients:

Fusili pasta
Penne pasta
1 pc. Onion (diced finely)
2 cloves garlic (diced finely)
4 large ripe tomatoes (sliced in small cubes)
6 Tbsp. tomato paste
Cheese
Fresh herbs :
Parsley
Sweet basil
Thai basil
Purple basil
thyme

Procedure:

Sauté onion and garlic until onions are translucent but not browned, add tomatoes and the sprigs of fresh thyme. Continue sautéing until tomatoes are wilted. Add tomato paste. Add 1 cup of water, season with salt and pepper, bring to boil and lower the flame, leave to simmer for 10 minutes until the liquid had reduced. Remove the sprigs of thyme and discard.

While the tomato sauce is simmering, cook pasta in salted water until al-dente. Drain in a colander and mix with the tomato sauce, add the finely sliced herbs (basils and parsley) and mix all together. Add grated cheese.

Handy tip: Add the herbs on the last minute in order not to loose its flavor. Except for thyme coz the aroma of thyme lingers longer.

Here, I served it with slices of pork.

This recipe is good for 2 servings, you may adjust the amount of sauce and pasta according to your needs.