Sometimes the simple recipes are the best.
Spaghetti with raw tomato and rocket – to serve 4
- 4 plum ripe plum tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 dried hot chile
- 2 tbsp capers
- 3 tbsp black olives
- 3 tbsp rocket
- extra virgin olive oil
- 300g spaghetti
Cut the tomatoes in half and squeeze out the excess juice and seeds, and chop the flesh coarsely. Crush the garlic with a teaspoon of sea salt with the flat of a knife. Rinse the capers, and pit the olives. Roughly chop the rocket.
Combine the tomatoes with the garlic, the crumbled chile, capers and olives. Season really well, add the olive oil and leave aside for 30 minutes.
Cook the spaghetti in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain, and stir the pasta into the tomatoes. Add the rocket. Toss to coat and season with black pepper.
Serve with some more olive oil.
Wine Suggestion: You want to find a wine as fresh as the ingredients being used, so try a youthful Dolcetto from the Piedmont region in north-west Italy.
(Original recipe from Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers’ Italian Two Easy, Clarkson/Potter, 20o6.)
Oh Yum!!