Angel hair with fresh tomato sauce
Juicy chopped tomatoes, garlic, basil and good olive oil make a sauce with no cooking at all, tossed with angel hair that’s ready in four minutes.
- 35 min total
- 15 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $1.50 a serving
- 450 calories
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Most of the time here is hands-off, so you can sit down while it cooks.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 6 Roma tomatoes
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ cup fresh basil, leaves
- 12 oz angel hair pasta
- ¼ cup grated parmesan
From your pantry
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1½ tbsp salt, divided
- ½ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 450 calories, 14 g protein, 70 g carbs and 13 g fat, and costs about $1.50 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the tomatoes into small pieces and put them, with all their juice, in a big serving bowl.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
the garlic over the tomatoes, add the olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper, stir, and let it sit while you cook the pasta.
Grate. Grating means rubbing food across the holes of a grater to make fine shreds or flakes. It spreads cheese, garlic or ginger evenly through a dish so it melts right in.
How you’ll know: Even shreds fall off the back of the grater, and you stop while the piece is still big enough to hold.
Dolly’s tip: Give it 15 minutes if you can. The salt pulls out the tomato juice, and that juice becomes your sauce.Fill a large pot with water, add 1 tablespoon salt, cover and over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Tear the basil leaves into the tomatoes.
Cook the angel hair until just tender, 3 to 4 minutes.
High heatTimer: 3 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: Angel hair goes soft in a blink. Taste at 3 minutes and stay by the pot.the pasta and tip it straight into the bowl. well so the warm pasta soaks up the tomato juices.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Taste, add of salt if it needs it, and serve topped with parmesan.
Pinch. A pinch is what you can hold between your thumb and two fingers, less than an eighth of a teaspoon. It’s a small, forgiving amount, so there’s no need to measure.
How you’ll know: It’s a light sprinkle you can barely see on the food, not a little pile.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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Vegetarian dinners ›Beginner dinners ›What to make with tomatoes and parmesan ›