Ingredients
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus an extra dash for cooking the pasta
- 1 medium hot chilly, finely sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped
- handful basil leaves
- can chopped tomato
- salt, to taste
- 200g penne pasta (or however much you need to satisfy your hunger)
- parmesan shavings (or similar vegetarian hard cheese), to serve
- Heat the olive oil in a pan. Add the chilli and garlic. After about a minute, add the basil leaves and gently wilt them in the flavoured oil.
- Add the chopped tomatoes to the frying pan.
- Simmer for at least 10 minutes, until the sauce has thickened a little. Add salt to taste.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta in large saucepan of boiling, salted water with a dash of olive oil. Drain the pasta and add to the tomato sauce, toss to coat. Serve with shavings of parmesan.
Method
Well its a busy Tuesday and I am back late. The Two Younger Offspring are very kindly being given supper by a friend before going to Brownies. I get home after a longish day and the stuff that I shopped for at the weekend is really for a long cook - and I don't have the time or patience to wait really. I also have to feed the Boy at some point but he isn't home yet so it needs to be something that can be re-heated. And made from a store cupboard
Thoughts always turn to pasta at this point, but what to have with it. I was thinking brocolli, chilli and garlic but I am not sure The Boy would go for that, which just means I would need to do something else later - and I fancy something without meat. So, Arrabiata - a tomato, garlic and chilli pasta sauce that can be on the table in 15 minutes from a standing start.
And so it was, I managed to cook and eat it before I needed to go out and collect from Brownies. For the Boy, he wanted some protein and so I cooked and added some diced chicken breast to the arrabiata and that suited him fine - he wolfed it with a ton of pasta.
The quantity below served the two of us well