The best summer pasta
Today’s recipe is one of my seasonal must-makes. An immediate classic, an instant addition to the repertoire, a summer requirement.
How do I love thee, Summer Tomato and Basil Pasta with Pine Nut Sauce? Let me (attempt to) count the ways:
Table of Contents
I love thee the way I love a dish that rewards a great tomato and forgives a mediocre one.
I love thee the way I love a dish that makes barely more than a half-dozen humble ingredients taste richer than they have any right to.
I love thee the way I love summer itself.
I love thee the way I love pasta itself.
Well, it’s clear that I’m no Elizabeth Barrett Browning, so I’ll leave the attempts at poetry there, but let me tell you more about where this recipe comes from and how I found it.
It’s from Amy Chaplin’s “Whole Food Cooking Every Day,” a book I adore for its focus on food that’s as breezy as … well, as the coast of Maine on a summer’s day, although perhaps even more lovely and more temperate. The dish co-stars a cheesy, creamy sauce made from pine nuts, olive oil, and lemon; and the intermingling of ripe tomatoes with basil, a touch of balsamic, and garlic. Nothing extraneous.
On the first taste so many years ago, I first thought I should just stop and eat the pasta with the pine-nut sauce alone. Fantastic, no doubt. But I trust Amy, and thank goodness for that, because the other ingredients take this beyond fantastic and into where-have-you-been-all-my-life territory. (Although I have taken inspiration from the recipe and employed the sauce elsewhere, perhaps most successfully to finish my best mushroom risotto.)
The dish quickly took its place in the pantheon of it-wouldn’t-be-summer-without-this recipes: Sour cherry pie. Twelve-hour tomatoes. Peach brûlée. Southern tomato sandwich. And now tomato and basil pasta with pine-nut sauce.
My friend and former coworker Olga Massov told me that because summer’s lease hath all too short a date, the pasta has entered her family’s seasonal rotation, too, to the point where they call it “Joe’s pasta.” Shorthand and nothing more, because as much as I wish I had invented it, credit where due: Thank you, Amy!
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Recipe: Summer Tomato and Basil Pasta with Pine Nut Sauce
Makes 4 servings // Time: Weeknight // Storage: Best eaten immediately, but can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.
For the pine nut sauce:
½ cup raw pine nuts
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste
For the pasta:
1½ pounds ripe tomatoes
1 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 large garlic clove, pressed or grated
¾ teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
One 12-ounce package penne, spaghetti, or fettuccine
Make the pine nut sauce: Warm a medium skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes. Toss in the pine nuts, reduce the heat to low, and toast, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, or until fragrant and golden. Transfer to a mortar or mini food processor and add the 3 tablespoons olive oil, the lemon juice, and ½ teaspoon salt. Use a pestle to crush the nuts and grind until a paste forms; or, in a mini food processor, blend until smooth, scrape the sides, and blend again. (You can make the sauce up to a month ahead — see the first Note — and store it in a glass jar in the fridge.)
Core the tomatoes, cut into ½-inch chunks, and transfer to a large serving bowl, along with their juice. Add the basil, the 2 tablespoons olive oil, the vinegar, garlic, ¾ teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste, and toss to thoroughly combine. Set aside to marinate while you cook the pasta (you can prepare the tomatoes up to 3 hours in advance).
Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain it well and return it to the pot. Add the pine nut sauce and stir to evenly coat the pasta. Add to the tomatoes and gently toss to combine. Season to taste with more salt and pepper, and serve.
NOTES:
This dish is best eaten immediately, as the tomatoes don’t stand up well in the fridge. The pine nut sauce, on the other hand, keeps for up to a month refrigerated, which is reason enough to make it ahead, or to double it.
If you only have a regular-size food processor, you may need to double the pine nut sauce for it to blend up smooth; if you’d rather not have extra, just blend until it’s as smooth as possible, stopping to scrape and move the mixture around. A mortar and pestle or a mini food processor sidesteps the problem.
Substitutions
Pine nuts: Toasted cashews, blanched almonds, or sunflower seeds all grind into a similar creamy paste; walnuts work too, with a little more bitterness.
Basil: Mint, parsley, or a mix.
Balsamic vinegar: Red wine vinegar or an extra squeeze of lemon takes it brighter and less sweet.
Pasta: Gluten-free or whole-grain; a chickpea or lentil pasta bumps the protein.
Make it a grain bowl: Skip the pasta entirely and toss the tomatoes and pine nut sauce with warm farro, quinoa, or rice for a heartier, meal-prep-friendly version.
Halved (for two)
This halves cleanly, with one caveat: The pine nut sauce is already a small batch (½ cup), and most food processors won’t blend a quarter cup of anything smoothly. So either make the full sauce and save half (it keeps for a month), or grind the halved amount by hand in a mortar and pestle. Everything else simply divides in two.
Makes 2 servings // Time: Weeknight // Storage: Best eaten immediately, but can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.
For the pine nut sauce (see the caveat above about scale):
¼ cup raw pine nuts
1½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1½ teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ teaspoon fine salt, or more to taste
For the pasta:
¾ pound (340 g) ripe tomatoes
½ cup fresh basil leaves, torn
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 small garlic clove, pressed or grated
Scant ½ teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
6 ounces penne, spaghetti, or fettuccine
Follow the method as written above.
Adapted from “Whole Food Cooking Every Day” by Amy Chaplin (Artisan, 2019), copyright Amy Chaplin.
More favorite summer pasta recipes
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Until next week,
