Patio Pasta

Patios pasta & pups

There’s something about the warm summer air that just draws people to patios. They offer place to eat, to relax, to read, to entertain, to just be. Personally, when I’m relaxing on a patio there’s nothing I love more than good company and a light bite! …enter Patio Pasta.

Patio Pasta is unique in the fact that it is not pasta salad, as one would expect at a summer BBQ, and it’s not a full blown sit down dinner pasta where you’re in a food coma for 4 hours following. It’s a breed of it’s own. It checks the pasta box while also leaving room for whatever else is cooking up. The best part is the sauce is so fresh, so simple and packed with so much flavor, yet it’s as airy as a lightly salted summer breeze.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• Package of Spaghetti or Capellini (dried or fresh) - thin pasta provides more opportunity to soak up the sauce

• Fresh tomatoes - farmers market or seasonal tomatoes are best!

• Garlic

• Shallot

• Semi-soft Italian cheese or provolone (parmesan always welcome)

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• Lemon

• Red Pepper flakes

• Garden herbs

Flavor the oil

• Add 3-4 cloves of garlic and a few dashes of red pepper flakes to unheated extra virgin olive oil

  • Hot tip - Adding garlic and chili flakes to room temp oil and slowly heating extracts flavors from the aromatics into the oil (or water if boiling) vs adding ingredients to already hot oil or water. This will cook ingredients instead of the liquid they were cooked in

• Slowly bring to a light simmer and cook until the garlic starts to turn golden. At this point discard the browned garlic from the oil.

Prep the Sauce

• While the garlic is simmering, rough chop the tomatoes & shallot and add to bowl along with 2-3 garlic cloves

• Squeeze in half a lemon to the bowl, while preserving the other half for later

• Once the browned garlic is removed the pan, add tomatoes, garden herbs, shallots and garlic to the flavored oil. Heat covered on low to allow all of the ingredients to emulsify

• Use an immersion blender to puree the sauce
  

Bring it all together!

• Once pasta is cooked according instructions, add 2-3 ladles of the pasta water to the sauce. This lengthens the sauce while the gluten from the pasta and the added salt water add silkiness and flavor

• Drain the pasta and add directly to the sauce

• Twirl a serving onto the plate and top with grated cheese and fresh herbs

• Pull up a patio chair and enjoy…Bon Appetito!