Capellini with Fresh Cherry Tomatoes and Basil

Ingredients

Kosher salt

1/2 c olive oil, plus extra for the pot

2 Tb minced garlic (6 cloves)

4 pts small cherry or grape tomatoes

18 large basil leaves, julienned

2 Tb chopped fresh curly parsley

2 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

12 oz capellini or angel hair pasta

1 1/2 c freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Extra chopped basil and grated Parmesan, for serving

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add pasta.

Meanwhile, heat the 1/2 cup of olive oil in a large (12-inch) saute pan. Add the garlic to the oil and cook over medium heat for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, basil, parsley, thyme, 2 teaspoons salt, the pepper, and red pepper flakes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, tossing occasionally, until the tomatoes begin to soften but don't break up.

 Drain the pasta, reserving some of the pasta water.  Place the pasta in a large serving bowl, add the tomatoes and Parmesan and toss well. Add some of the pasta water if the pasta seems too dry. Serve large bowls of pasta with extra basil sprinkled on top and a big bowl of extra Parmesan on the side.

*I made this last night (motivated by a plethora of cherry tomatoes) and it was DELISH!  I didn't add the red pepper flakes, but left them in the recipe for you to decide.  I cooked the tomatoes on low for probably about twice as long as the recipe says, so they would break open more.  Hope you enjoy!
**Tried them with the pepper flakes and it made it much spicier.  I suggest you add a cautious amount and see what you think.  Or leave them out completely like I did when I made them the first time.

Summer Tomato Tart

I figured I'd better share this before summer is over.  I made this a few weeks ago, but forgot to take a photo until this was all that was left:

Not the best photo.  But, it was seriously so yummy!

Crust:
10 (18x14-inch) sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed
1/3 C. butter, melted
1/2 C. grated Pecorino Romano (I used Parmesan)

Topping:
8 oz. small fresh mozzarella balls, halved (these are sometimes hard to find here, so I just took a brick of regular mozzarella and cut it into cubes.
5 plum tomatoes, sliced (just used tomatoes from my garden)
1/3 C. thinly sliced fresh basil, divided (pretty sure I used way more than 1/3 C, but I'm sort of obsessed with the tomato/basil combination)
2 T. grated Pecorino Romano cheese (Parmesan)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Unfold phyllo dough; cover with clean kitchen towel (to prevent drying out).  Lightly brush 17x11-inch baking sheet with some of the butter.  Place 1 sheet phyllo on baking sheet.  Brush with butter; sprinkle with some of the Romano cheese.  Repeat layers until all phyllo is used, brushing each with butter and sprinkling with cheese.

Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and crispy.  Cool completely.  If making ahead of time, wrap tightly until ready to use.

Just before serving--arrange mozzarella cheese evenly over crust; top with tomatoes.  Sprinkle with half of the basil, 2 T. Romano cheese, salt and pepper.

Bake 5-7 minutes, or until cheese is slightly melted and tomatoes are warm.  Cool slightly; sprinkle with remaining basil.

This was a little extra work, but I thought the phyllo dough was kind of fun to work with.  And did I mention how delicious this was?!

The sauce recipe I used to bottle spaghetti sauce this year. (Anthony's Pasta Sauce)

So, just so we're clear, this recipe is the one I used to can spaghetti sauce this year.
It is NOT my recipe.
But you can find it here: http://spaghettisauceandmeatballs.com/.

I 3x this recipe, to fill my stock pot, which made 13 jars of sauce.

It's a really drawn out and fancy recipe. But, in my opinion, it's totally worth it. For one thing, it's a very tasty sauce. For another, it makes me feel like a gourmet cook. I don't usually feel that way because I'm not one, and I don't have any other recipes that I do that are this detailed and drawn out. But I seriously love making this sauce. It's just fun to me. Maybe I'm really wierd. But don't knock it until you try it. And I've never tried the meatballs yet, I'm ashamed to say. They sound really good.

When I make this sauce, I have always frozen it in bags before, but this time I tried bottling it. When I would freeze it, I would cook up some sausage and add it to the sauce in the early stages. I originally planned on doing this when I bottled it, but then found out you can only bottle meat with a pressure canner. I do have a pressure canner, but I really didn't want to spend the extra time it would take to use it. I have a steam canner that takes about half the time that the pressure canner does, so I just omitted all meat this time. I will just add sausage or whatever meat when I get the sauce out.

Also, I used 4 cups of tomato sauce that I got from tomatoes from our garden. I have a Sauce Master that makes it REALLY easy to make tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes, without any prep work (no peeling, dicing, or cooking).

So let me know if you try it. And Happy Cooking!

***10/28/12: I have now opened two jars of the sauce and they are VERY watery, so I would recommend either adding a lot less water than it says to, or to let it simmer for at least 30 min to 1 hour to let the water evaporate out.***

tomato, mushroom, and olive penne

10 penne pasta
1/2 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 TB olive oil
1/2 C fresh mushrooms, chopped
1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes (or you can use fresh tomatoes diced too)
1 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 TB fresh basil
1 TB fresh parsley
1/2 can olives, sliced in halves

Cook and drain pasta according to package directions. Set aside. Heat olive oil in large skillet. Add onions, garlic, and mushrooms and saute until onions are translucent. Add the tomatoes, garlic salt, pepper, basil, and parsley and simmer for 5-10 min. Add the olives and the pasta, stir together. Serve immediately. Super yummy!