one-pan pasta
serves 4
◾12 ounces linguine – 3/4 of a box, use regular old linguine, not angel hair or quinoa pasta, as they have shorter cooking times.
◾12 ounces, 3/4 of a pint of cherry or grape tomatoes, washed and halved
◾1 red onion, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
◾4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
◾2 teaspoons sea salt
◾1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
◾1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
◾2 sprigs basil, plus some extra torn leaves for garnish
◾2 tablespoons extra virgin-olive oil
◾4 1/2 cups water
◾freshly shredded parmesan cheese for topping the pasta
Instructions
Ok, first things first! Let's prep our ingredients. Peel and thinly slice your red onion.
Peel and thinly slice your garlic cloves.
Wash and halve your cherry tomatoes.
Get out a large straight-sided skillet pan and put in your pasta, tomatoes, red onion, garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, basil sprigs, olive oil and pour the in the 4 1/2 cups water. Pretty easy right? You're truly throwing everything into the pan at the same time. Love it!
Turn up the heat to high and bring the water to a boil.
Let the water come to a full boil. You will see bubbles on the side of the pan at first, but wait until you see bubbles all over the pan.
Once your water comes to a full boil, set your timer to 9 minutes. Note: If you're using a whole-wheat or quinoa pasta, you may want to check their cooking times and adjust the cooking time accordingly. I have not used either of those pastas so I can't tell you how this recipe works with those types of pastas.
Stand by the stove and using tongs, lift and move the pasta around every so often so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Check your pasta around 7 minutes to see where its at, as some pastas cook up quicker than others and you don't want gummy pasta.
You will notice that most of the water is evaporating and getting thicker, and everything is starting to cook down like the tomatoes and the onions.
Test the pasta at 9 minutes and it should be al dente!
Turn off the heat and give the pasta a few quick tosses. There will be some liquid at the bottom of the pan, but don't fret, the liquid will thicken up and turn into a sauce.
Serve up the pasta in large bowls and top with some Parmesan cheese and fresh basil. The basil leaves really add that extra punch of flavor, so be sure to top everyone's pasta with a few leaves.
