When I was working at the Restaurant I used to eat this almost religiously.
I wanted nothing else but maybe a small salad with olive oil, lemon, Parmesan and arugula and lots and lots of cracked black pepper and a little fleur de sel.Which reminds me I need to buy some of that salt I know ten bucks for a tiny thing of salt is crazy but seriously its worth it.  This is what Fleur de sel is courtesy of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleur_de_sel

Fleur de sel (“Flower of salt” in French) is a hand-harvested sea salt collected by workers who scrape only the top layer of salt before it sinks to the bottom of large salt pans. Traditional French fleur de sel is collected off the coast of Brittany (most notably in the towns of Guérande – Fleur de Sel de Guérande, hand harvested from salt marsh water being the most revered), Noirmoutier, and also Camargue. It is an artisanal food product. Due to its relative scarcity, Fleur de sel is one of the more expensive salts.

Fleur de sel is often slightly grey due to the sand collected in the process of harvesting the salt from the pans. On occasion, the presence of Dunaliella salina (a type of pink microalgae commonly found in salt marshes) can give it a light pink tint. It is usually sold in sealed jars.

Nothing like the mildly salty desolving flavor of Fleur de sel on salted caramels, a freshly grilled prime rib eye steak, or a simple heirloom tomato caprese fantastic. Anyway…

I would eat this Pasta when i forgot to eat for about god knows how long with linguine if i wasn’t too tired to pay attention to the pasta water which was at the end almost never so i would settle for angel hair or penne which took me three minutes instead of 8 big deal 5 minutes is when your starving and forgot you haven’t eaten in about a day and a half… geezus no wonder i was so damn skinny back then…

Anyway I love simple pasta with Tomato this is just that… and a crazy load of basil. I love Basil nothing tastes fresher to me than basil. I remember picking so many pieces of basil but i never got tired of it. I always loved that smell, the freshness, it makes me feel at ease.

My favorite Pasta

Boil a large pot of water
add salt to water so when you taste it you can feel the salt on your tongue

1-2 servings

Sauce
1  teaspoon of red chili flake
6-8 Roma tomatoes sliced into quarters long ways
1/2 cup basil chopped
3 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 cup of pasta water
1 cup of tomato sauce
pinch of black pepper
Salt to taste
4 tablespoons of Extra virgin Olive Oil

when you use such simple ingredients you have to make sure they are the best quality use ripe tomatoes, fresh basil, finely minced garlic, cold pressed olive oil

Heat olive oil in pan till almost smoking

add tomatoes to hot oil and cook for about 5 minutes be careful of popping oil when cooking.  move tomatoes around to caramelize a bit in the oil. Some people don’t like tomato skins if you don’t like tomato skins you can used canned tomatoes if you want but it wont taste as fresh unless you use the roma tomatoes. this is a fresh tomato sauce don’t be afraid of skins or you mine as well just use a jar of marinara and fuck that its not the same

lower heat after and add garlic to tomatoes stir quickly and keep fire low to sweat garlic with tomatoes and be careful not to burn the garlic

add chili fake and black pepper

add pasta water to tomatoes and simmer for another 5 minutes

then add the tomato sauce and 1/2 the basil

cook for 10 minutes stirring occasionally

Meanwhile

Make sure the water is rapidly boiling before you put your pasta in

also make sure you cook your pasta at the last minute right before your going to toss it in the sauce

leave it a little raw a little more than al dente and finish cooking it in the sauce that is a little more liquid then you would like  if that means adding a little extra pasta water to your sauce do it

cook it down so the flavor sticks to the pasta and coats ever so shinny and delicious

add a sprinkle of extra virgin olive oil cold pressed from Italy and freshly chopped Basil right as your about to plate.

Served along side some roasted chicken for my brother in law he doesn’t like much basil

Mine like i said paper plate and more basil and parm mixed in

One of my very favorite things to eat
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