by Tierney O'Hara

Created on: July 06, 2009   Last Updated: July 19, 2009

Very soon my plum tomatoes (Romas) will be red and ripe. These tomatoes are fleshy and sweet, never watery, and are an excellent choice for pasta sauces.

When I have a basket of plum tomatoes still warm from the sun, sitting on the kitchen counter, I contemplate what I'm going to cook with them.

Inevitably I decide not to cook at all, but to make this super simple, yet outrageously good, pasta sauce called Summer Spaghetti.

The natural sugars of the ripe, plum tomatoes make the dish seem as if sugar is on the ingredient list, but it's not. And, the only cooking involved is making the pasta, so your kitchen stays cool and so do you.

A healthy meal, low in calories, Summer Spaghetti can be made with vine-ripened tomatoes, but for superior taste, only use red, ripe plum tomatoes.

Ingredients

8-10 plum tomatoes chopped

4 small cloves grated or minced garlic

4 Tablespoons fresh basil chopped

4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt and Pepper

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1 pound box of thin spaghetti

About five hours before serving, rough chop the plum tomatoes and put into a bowl. Grate 4 small cloves of garlic into the bowl. Drizzle 4 Tablespoons of olive oil over the top of the tomatoes and garlic, and stir. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave on your counter in the sun, if possible.

It's as if the tomatoes and garlic cook right on your counter; the garlic mellows and the tomatoes create a juicy "sauce."

Right before serving, put the pasta water on to boil and chop or slice the fresh basil leaves.

When the pasta is done and drained, put it back into the pasta pot and add in the tomato-garlic mixture and the fresh basil to the hot pasta.

Stir well and put into a large pasta serving bowl. Grate or shave Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese over the top of the pasta and garnish with a sprig of fresh basil.

You may adjust the ingredients to your own taste ( less garlic or more oil) or add in sliced black olives, fresh cooked peas, mint leaves or minced scallions, but we like it plain and simple with nothing more than a garden salad and an ice-cold beer!

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