Spaghetti with Basil Oil

Ok I know – I’ve been neglecting this blog but I have excuses I promise! We have been traveling a ton (Houston-New Orleans-Houston-Corpus Christi-Austin in 1 trip for example) and we have added to our family! He is cute so it’s been pretty worth it but trust me its hard to cook, document and at the same time yell at the puppy who continues to try and climb into the wine rack….but gosh darn it I did it tonight!

Tonight I was home alone with the “kids” so I decided to make this recipe I came across a few weeks ago. I have a soft spot in my heart for pasta, not only because it is delicious but because it was my favorite thing to cook with my dad.  Pasta required his special secret ingredients/techniques, extra work and time so while we would stand over the sauce he would tell me stories, jokes, give me advise, we would talk about our day or have some heart to hearts and let me watch the news with him (tv on school nights was not allowed so shh don’t let my mom know!) so I always love a good pasta recipe that I can share with him and while I sat in my kitchen tonight with tomato sauce bubbling all over the stove top I find myself thinking in my head what stories of the day or jokes I heard recently I would tell him if he were here with me. This recipe was so delicious and absolutely easy to make! It’s from a fancy Italian restaurant in NYC called Scarpetta and this 2 fork full serving goes for $24 a pop. Seriously. The best part is its so simple it goes with almost everything!!

Ingredients:
1/4c olive oil
4-5 garlic cloves – peeled and sliced
5-8 basil leaves torn into larger pieces
1 package of spaghetti
1 can whole peeled tomatoes
2 pats of butter
Parmesan cheese (I like grated cheese because it incorporated better than shaved)

About an hour before you are planning on making dinner put the olive oil, garlic and basil in a small sauce pot and put it on low low heat for about 10 minutes. Don’t let the oil get too hot you don’t want to brown anything. When you taste it and it gets basily-garlicy put it off the heat and let it sit for as long as you want – it will only get tastier.

Basil oil hanging out

Put a large pot of water on the stove and bring it to a boil. While you are waiting for the water to boil take a large skillet with higher edges and put a few tablespoons of olive oil and throw in the whole can of tomatoes.

Whole tomatoes pre-smashing

Let that sizzle for a few minutes and then using a potato masher or an immersion blender crush the tomatoes until they are smooth. Let the sauce simmer until it has thickened quite a bit.

Post-smashing

Cook the pasta according to the package and drain and return the pasta to the pot. Combine the tomato sauce, spaghetti, butter and 3-4T of the Parmesan cheese and mix using 2 forks or salad mixers until thoroughly combined.

Spoon a small amount of pasta into a bowl (I serve it by giving each bowl 2 fork twirls of spaghetti). Then use a spoon and anoint the pasta with the basil oil (usually 2 spoonfuls worth). You can add some red pepper flakes if you wish but the beauty of this dish is the simplicity and clean flavors.

Anointing with lovely oil

I love making this as a side dish to roasted chicken, seared scallops (my personal favorite), I have it tonight with a simple salad and steak leftovers.

Previous dish I made with seared scallops mmmmm

mmmmmm yea! And I had enough for leftovers for dinner tomorrow for both of us and dinner Friday (4 servings total). The total cost of this meal was $7.26 (seriously) which makes each serving $1.82 – a far cry from the $24 plate in New York right?!?

Now for the nutrition a serving of the pasta alone is 167 calories, 13 g of fat and 1.9g of protein. Now I know this isn’t going to win any nutritional awards but hey – sometimes you just need a good spaghetti but you can also give yourself just a tiny tiny dab of it if you have the willpower (I dare you) and double the protein. Trust me though – mind blowing!