This recipe was a lovely discovery in a pasta place in Bucharest (thanks to Mandy for the introduction) and its simplicity and freshness will provoke addiction. I need to brag about the fact that when I cooked it at home, the experience was even better than what we had in the restaurant. And it is so easy to cook!
Raw materials:
200-300 gr paccheri pasta
400 gr cherry tomatoes
10 garlic cloves
100 ml cooking cream
100 gr fresh buffalo mozzarella
fresh basil leaves
salt, pepper, dry thyme, dry oregano
2-3 tbsp olive oil
20 gr grated parmesan
Start by boiling the pasta. This will take around 15 minutes while you can prepare the sauce. Fry the cherry tomatoes cut in quartes in olive oil and add the chopped garlic, salt and pepper. The quality of the cherry tomatoes is essential for this recipe. You need to find the ripe and fragrant ones to boost both colour and taste of this dish. At this stage you can also chop a couple of basil leaves. These combination of colours and smells is a killer 😀
Once the tomatoes are softened, you can put the boiled pasta on top and stir everything together. After a couple of minutes, use the cooking cream and continue stirring. Now you can use the thyme, oregano and rip the mozzarella all over your pasta. Such a rare pleasure!
Keep the heat on for one more minute, stir everything really fast and then turn of the heat. Grate some parmesan on top and chop 4-5 more basil leaves on top of everything.
So simple and so tasty.. all the Mediterranean flavours are boosting each other in this super fast recipe 🙂