With this glorious and yes unseasonal weather, I’m in a summery mood and I’ve been able to harvest a few more courgettes, the last of the tomatoes and peppers have finally ripened, and the basil is still going strong.

With these lovely fresh ingredients what better way than to make a quick weekday pasta meal for 2. I like to add the tomatoes at the very end, so they are only warmed through and not actually cooked. This gives pasta dishes a realyl fresh taste.

Simple Summer Pasta

Ingredients ~

• Pasta of choice – I like Linguine with this dish
• 6 Fresh Tomatoes roughly chopped
• 1 pepper, deseeded and sliced into chunks
• 1 courgette (I used several baby sized courgettes), chopped into chunks
• 1 clove of garlic finely chopped
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped~ optional
• A handful of basil leaves
• Olive oil for shallow frying
• Salt and Black pepper to taste

Method ~

• Cook the pasta as per the instructions on the packet (linguine takes 10 minutes), and drain.
• In a frying pan or wok gently heat the olive oil and fry the garlic for a minute or two, (if using chilli add it to the pan at this point).
• Add the courgette and peppers and continue to gently fry for about 3 minutes or until the courgette and pepper are cooked.
• Add the drained pasta into the pan, keep the heat at low, and gently mix the vegetables and pasta together.
• At this point add the chopped tomatoes and basil leaves and mix together
• Check to see if you need to add salt, and I like to grind some fresh black pepper on the pasta.

See, I said it was simple 🙂