Perfect for summer! Angel hair pasta with shallots, garlic, chopped clams, cherry tomatoes and basil
Hello summer gardeners, have your tomatoes arrived yet? Our plants are just beginning to bear ripe tomatoes and if I can keep the hornworms at bay (constant vigilance!) we will have a wonderful harvest.
Our basil got a late start but is now happily bursting out of the raised beds and needs to be chopped daily. These two – tomatoes and basil – are such perfect partners in the garden and on the plate.
Here’s a quick and easy kid-friendly angel hair pasta dish we made recently with chopped canned clams, cherry tomatoes, and basil from the garden. I say “kid sized” because my 16 year old nephew devoured it and kept coming back for more. He’s quite a big kid now, but I think younger ones would like that too.
Angel Hair Pasta with clams, cherry tomatoes and basil
Save time by preparing the shallots, garlic, tomatoes, and basil while the water is heating for the pasta.
ingredients
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30 cherry tomatoeshalved
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1/4 teaspoon Salt
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4 tablespoon fresh basilchopped, shared
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1/4 Cup Extra virgin olive oil
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1/2 Cup shallotscut
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2 cloves garlicchopped
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2 (6-ounce) cans chopped clams (and their juices)
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8th ounces capellini or angel hair paste
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Salt, for the pasta water
method
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Toss cherries with salt and basil:
Place chopped cherry tomatoes in a bowl. Toss with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil. Put aside.
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Boil salted water, prepare shallots and garlic:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil (4 liters water, 2 tablespoons salt). While the water is coming to a boil, prepare the shallots and garlic and start the sauce.
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Prepare the tomato clam sauce:
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chopped shallots and sauté until translucent, stirring frequently. Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds.
Add the tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes. Add the chopped mussels with their juice.
Reduce heat and simmer on low while the pasta cooks in the next step.
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Cook pasta:
When the salted pasta water is bubbly, add the pasta and cook, uncovered, over high heat until al dente, no more than 2 minutes.
Drain the pasta, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Add the 1/4 cup pasta water to the sauce in the skillet.
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Mix pasta and sauce:
Add the noodles to the cherry tomato mixture and mix together. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh basil.
Serve immediately.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 515 | calories |
| 21g | Fat |
| 49g | carbohydrates |
| 34g | protein |
