Caprese Pasta

Pasta is my most favorite thing to eat.

  It's in my blood and my heart.  It's absolutely amazing to me how fresh & simple of a dish you can create with pasta and a handful of ingredients, most of which you typically always have on-hand as staple items.

....And I am in love with this pasta.  I may be in trouble a little later when my hubby comes home and realizes I made it for lunch today without him. I do adore him too, although it's a tough call.

 Uh-oh.  Let's just keep this between you and me.

Caprese Salad is a pretty standard Italian-restaurant menu item, and frequents my household table often in the summertime.  You can't really get good tomatoes until then {at least good enough to eat raw}, so I threw this together and I must say...it's yummy!  All of the traditional flavors are there, and a few surprise guests as well.  I will explain that in a second....

Ok...so see the oranges, lemon and zest?  I know, I know.  A bit strange, but if you think about it...some caprese salad use balsamic vinegar which is acidic and instead, I think the acidity from the citrus is far better.  Quite fabulous and the freshness that you get from it is kind of like walking through a farmer's market on a crisp, cool morning.

This is a super quick sauce to make on the stove while your pasta is boiling.  Be sure to save some of the liquid { about 1/4 cup of pasta water} to throw in here at the end for a little extra flavor and to make the sauce stretch farther.  I sprinkled some of the parmesan in right after this, and saved the mozzarella until it was all mixed together in the bowl for the "melt-effect". 

As an after thought, I realized it would have been totally fun to add in some lightly grilled sourdough crostini-croutons to make it more of a Bruschetta Caprese Pasta.  Go for it if you desire and let me know how it was!

Enjoy!

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●

 Ingredients for Caprese Pasta

1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Tomato Paste
1 Clove Garlic, Minced {or 1 Tbsp Garlic Puree}
1/4 Cup Pinot Grigio
Zest & Juice of 1 Lemon
Zest & Juice of 1 Large Orange
4-6 Basil Leaves, rolled up and sliced {chiffonade style}
1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese, plus more for sprinkling
1 Boccocini Mozzarella Ball {drained from water}, torn into small pieces
2 Large Ripe Tomatoes, chopped {I used Heirloom}
About 1/4 Cup Reserved Pasta Water
8-10oz Pasta {I used multi-colored Farfalle}

Directions

Heat olive oil in saucepan on stove over medium heat. Add tomato paste and garlic, heat about 1 minute.  Add white wine, lemon & orange juice and zest, & basil.  Simmer about 3 or 4 minutes.  Add in chopped tomatoes and 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese & stir until cheese is melted in. Reduce heat to low.

Cook Pasta Al Dente according to package directions.  Take about 1/4 cup of liquid from the pasta water and add to your Caprese Sauce.  Stir well and add salt & pepper.

Toss sauce together with cooked pasta.  If you feel like you need a little more sauce add a small amount more of pasta water into the freshly tossed pasta.  Stir in pieces of mozzarella and sprinkle with more parmesan cheese. 

Garnish with more Basil & Serve.

Serves 2