The past few days, I have felt
like my palate has been receiving
very predictable flavors. Whilst
everything has been well made and
full of flavor, it just hasn't been
fulfilling. I felt like I needed to
trade cumin for perhaps basil or
parsley. I couldn't quite put my
finger on what it was. Then I
started thinking of summer and all
of a sudden, my mind felt like a
school blackboard with a spider
diagram sprouting all kinds of
summery words...'bikini',
'sunscreen', 'chilled lemonade'...
NO NO NO.. not even close.. and
then I had my aha moment..
'TOMATOES'!!!.. YES!! TOMATOES!!! I
didn't want something rich and
heavy but then I am not exactly a
candidate for gazpacho either. I
felt like a light and fresh tasting
summer's pasta was on the cards. If
you haven't noticed already, the
use of the word 'summer' has been
gratuitously thrown around by me,
but just one last comment on
summer. Summer is the time when
tomatoes take the center stage.
They are sweet and juicy and some
people even eat them as a fruit. So
what's the bottom line? It is a
crime to overcook your tomatoes and
bad karma (a little dramatic
perhaps). Getting back to our dish,
this light summer's pasta has a
real flavor of the Mediterranean.
Crushed pepperoncino (dried chili
flakes) and plenty of garlic
sizzling away in hot olive oil was
only the beginning. The tomatoes
also exceeded expectations and
added tang, sweetness and bursts of
juiciness. I wanted to add
something else to the dish but
didn't want it to dominate the
natural flavor of the tomatoes and
garlic. I felt rocket and
watercress would do the trick
without being omnipresent in every
bite. These leaves added another
dimension of flavor given their
peppery and sharp taste. The
tomatoes were removed from the heat
when they barely began to soften
and the greens were added after the
dish had been removed from the
heat, wilting very slightly. Having
talked about the sauce so much, I
must tell you that pasta was not
left neglected...I couldn't afford
to do that since it was after all a
'pasta-al-fresco' dish. This
al-dente pasta tossed in the
tomatoes and greens looked like
summer on a plate. This
pasta-al-fresco dish can be served
warm, but given that most of us are
trying desperately to eradicate our
inner heat from this heat wave, I
prefer it at room temperature. If
some of you read the pearls of
wisdom section after you have
cooked this dish, this one is for
you: please have all your
ingredients prepared before you
start cooking as this dish cooks
within 10 minutes and you don't
want to have to scramble to keep
up.
