A quick pasta that keeps the heat outside
It may be September, but the weather is still taking cues from summer.
Just the other day, the temperature in my neighbourhood had already spiked to 30 C by breakfast time, and I was glad I had stocked up at the farmers market. I didn’t even want to go outside.
When it’s that hot, I hardly feel like cooking — a rarity for me — or at least I don’t feel like cooking very much.
But since I had a load of cherry tomatoes and a basket of sweet peppers, it was the perfect time to make this bright, light and satisfying dish.
So I made one of the world’s easiest summertime pastas.
All the ingredients are raw, except for the pasta, of course.
There’s no stovetop cooking involved, except the five minutes it takes to cook capellini, angel hair pasta. And the pasta isn’t served hot, it actually tastes best at room temperature.
It’s quite common all over Italy to have pasta this way when temperatures soar; though it isn’t ice-cold, it is called pasta fredda.
You hardly need a recipe.
There are so many variations on pasta fredda; one basically reinvents the dish each time it is made. But I was happy with this one, and so were my guests.
Bell peppers and other sweet peppers — like Corno di Toro and many other varieties of every hue — arrive at the market the same time as long-awaited flavourful tomatoes (also multicoloured), in late summer, right now. Their pairing here seems preordained.
At the market, look for the most colourful assortment of tomatoes and peppers possible.
Cut the sweet peppers into small dice (the size of confetti) and the cherry tomatoes into halves (chopped larger tomatoes would work as well), then toss them with extra-virgin olive oil and red-wine vinegar, a touch of garlic and a pinch of red-pepper flakes.
Once dressed, the mixture can sit around for an hour or more — you don’t have to rush!
When the spirit moves you, boil water and cook the pasta.
Lately, I’m fond of skinny capellini and spaghettini. They taste marvellous when twirled on a fork laden with the marinated tomato-pepper mixture, but nearly any other pasta shape would be fine.
Mound the pasta in a low, wide salad bowl or pasta-serving bowl. Give it a little sprinkle of salt and final drizzle of oil.
Serve it plain or with add-ons, like crumbled ricotta salata cheese. I like a handful of crunchy seasoned bread crumbs, and a lot of basil leaves, or maybe a combination of chopped parsley, mint and marjoram.
Consider it a celebration of both the end-of-summer harvest and the seemingly endless sweltering days we’ll be wishing for by and by.
Angel Hair Pasta with Peppers and Tomatoes Makes 4 to 6 servings
2 garlic cloves, smashed to a paste
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar, or a bit less, to taste
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for bread crumbs, if using
Salt and pepper
Red-pepper flakes, to taste
1 cup finely diced sweet peppers (a mix of colours, if possible)
3 to 4 cups halved cherry tomatoes, or larger tomatoes cut into 1-inch chunks
1 pound angel hair pasta, capellini or spaghettini
2 ounces ricotta salata or mild feta cheese, roughly crumbled (about 1⁄2 cup)
1⁄4 cup coarse toasted bread crumbs, for garnish (optional)
1 small bunch basil, for garnish
Total time: 30 minutes
1. Put a large pot of water over high heat and bring to a boil.
2. In a low, wide salad bowl or pasta-serving bowl, combine garlic, red-wine vinegar and 3 tablespoons olive oil. Add a good pinch of salt, black pepper and red-pepper flakes.
3. Add sweet peppers and cherry tomatoes, season well with salt and toss to coat with dressing. (You may do this up to an hour before cooking the pasta.)
4. Salt the pasta water and cook the angel hair pasta until al dente, usually four to five minutes. Drain pasta in a colander.
5. Add cooked pasta to the bowl and toss well to coat, spooning over juices from bottom of bowl and bringing plenty of tomatoes and peppers to the surface.
6. Sprinkle with ricotta salata. If using bread crumbs, season with 1 teaspoon olive oil and a little salt, then sprinkle crumbs over surface.
7. Garnish with whole or torn basil leaves. Serve warm or at room temperature.