Hello!

I decided to start this blog to share food thoughts, recipes, and finds with my family and friends and anyone else who might be interested. More and more of my conversations on the phone have included the phrase "So what are you making for dinner?" And I am always thrilled to talk about food with people, but more exciting is EATING food. I am in no way an expert on food, nor a chef, but I have been brought up surrounded by wonderful cooks and food lovers. So here I am, blogging about food, my favorite pastime.

Right now my thoughts revolve around tomatoes. It is the beginning of tomato season where I live and my garden is full of the delicious fruit. After picking 15 pounds of tomatoes from my garden, and more on the vines still ripening, I have been trying to figure out what to do with them.

Last night I was looking at all the tomatoes on my counter, and pasta came to mind. What goes better with pasta than tomatoes? Luckily, my garden has a large supply of fresh basil just waiting to be picked so I had the makings of a simple, tasty, affordable dinner. The original recipe I found was from Country Living, then I altered it so that I would have more tomatoes and less pasta. It was very tasty!

Pasta Tossed with Fresh Tomatoes

Ingredients:
Fresh Mozzarella, about 1/2 of a pound, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/3 tsp Kosher Salt
1/2 cup olive oil (I used extra virgin)
2 Tbs butter (I used unsalted because that's what I have on hand for baking)
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
7 small cloves of garlic (minced or pressed)
6 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped (I used red and yellow tomatoes)
1/4 to 1/3 cup fresh basil, sliced
1/2 pound of pasta (I used angel hair because it was in my cupboard)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Make:
Toss the mozzarella with the salt and set aside. Heat the oil and butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion & garlic, reducing heat to medium-low and cook about 10 minutes, or until the onion is very tender. Remember to stir occasionally.

Cook the pasta according to the package.

While pasta cooks, add the tomatoes to the saute pan & turn up the heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are just tender (about 5 minutes).

Drain pasta and toss with the tomato mixture. Remove from heat, and stir in the salted mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan. Serve with fresh basil.