Sunday, July 31, 2016

SRC: Summer Spaghetti

For this month's Secret Recipe Club, I was assigned the blog Dancing Veggies.  Is that a cute name or what?  Dancing Veggies is written by a mom named Amanda who is a vegetarian and enjoys looking for and thinking up recipes that are delicious and not too hard on the wallet.

This was one of those months where I made my SRC recipe really quickly, within a couple days of receiving the assignment.  There were lots of tasty looking options on the blog, and I actually made the delicious Peach Dutch Baby, too, but decided I would share Summer Spaghetti because we loved it so much.  This is a very flavorful dish, but it's not super saucy.  It isn't spaghetti with marinara sauce, it's more like spaghetti in chopped up tomato heaven.  I used a combination of smallish on the vine tomatoes and yellow cherry tomatoes.

Thanks for the recipe, Amanda, my husband and I were crazy about it!

Quick Note:  The original recipe called for 1/4 C minced fresh basil.  The store didn't have any, so I purchased fresh oregano.  I used it and thought it was delicious, but will probably use dried in the future unless I happen to be growing some.  We didn't notice a big flavor difference between fresh and dried of this particular herb, and that little bundle of oregano cost like $3.  Fresh basil is a different story, though, and would definitely be good in this!


Also, to reheat the leftovers, I put the pasta in a large nonstick skillet with a little chicken broth (you could use veggie broth) and heated it over low until the pasta was tender again.  It was almost as good as the first night, which definitely would not have been the case had I heated it in the microwave!  We would have been eating a giant clump of noodles that way.



Summer Spaghetti

3 Tbsp butter
1/2 vidalia onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 1/2 lbs tomatoes, stems removed and chopped coarsely
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried oregano or 1/4 C minced fresh basil
12 oz angel hair pasta, cooked until just before it reaches al dente
salt to taste

Melt butter in large skillet over medium-low heat.  Add onion and saute until completely softened, about 15 minutes.  It's okay if the onions turn a little brown, but that's not the goal.  Add the garlic and saute for another couple of minutes.  Add tomatoes, red pepper flakes, oregano (add later if you use fresh basil), and salt to taste.  Turn to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes.  You want the sauce to be at a gentle simmer.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil while the tomatoes simmer.  Add angel hair and cook until it's a little firmer than you want, then drain and add to the skillet with the sauce.  Cook and stir for a couple of minutes, until pasta is completely coated in sauce and tender.   Add the fresh basil if you're using it, and serve.

16 comments:

  1. I can tell I would be crazy about that recipe, too! Great SRC pick!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cannot go wrong with pasta, if you ask me... I wonder if there's anyone who doesn't like it?

    nah... impossible!

    Happy Reveal Monday!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That looks and sounds so good. And is now on my list (a very long, long list) of recipes to try.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A lovely pasta dish. Great pick

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh this looks totally perfect, totally summery and totally something that needs to go on my to-make list. Perfect SRC pick!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am so glad you enjoyed it!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We really did! I wasn't sure if my husband would like it because he usually prefers his pasta swimming in smooth marinara sauce and doesn't like angel hair pasta for some reason. He loved it, though.

      I have 6 tomato plants growing this summer, but don't think we will have enough to warrant making this pasta with our own tomatoes. I'm also growing lettuce, cucumbers, peas, beans, and radishes. Probably only some of the beans will be cooked. We like to eat the stuff I grow raw! Someday when I finally get a greenhouse, I'll have lots of tomatoes so they can all ripen up really nicely and I can use them in recipes like this. Until then, I'll just have to buy my cooking tomatoes.

      Delete
  7. This looks perfect. I've got some tomatoes and basil in the garden. This spaghetti may just be their future.

    I heat my leftovers in the skillet, too. Usually I just add water, but I bet broth gives it some extra flavor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hadn't thought to reheat pasta on the stove before. I decided to use broth because I figured the pasta would have absorbed some of the salt from the sauce and the broth would add both salt and a little flavor.

      Delete
  8. That looks so fresh! I love the lightness of it! I had fun stalking your blog this month!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so glad you had fun with my blog! Maybe this is only me, but I always worry a bit that the person assigned to my blog won't find anything they want to make, or worse, that they'll make something and hate it and have to pick another recipe. I know I've had a few blogs that I had a really hard time finding a recipe on and have occasionally had to pick a different one when we didn't like how something turned out, but the good news is that I have always succeeded in finding a recipe that has turned out delicious!

      Delete
  9. That looks delicious. I make something very similar that also has a few pine nuts in it. I haven't pulled it out yet this summer, but I really, really should.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yay!!!! It's vegetarian!!! This is one of my favorite kinds of pasta. When there's not a lot of ingredients, you can appreciate each one. Thanks for sharing such a lovely recipe that's perfect for summer tomatoes! I want to try that peach dutch baby too!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly! Sometimes it's nice to have recipes with lots of ingredients, sometimes it's nice to have really simple ones. I knew I had a winner when I saw it. Usually I'm pretty good at guessing if a recipe will turn out really nicely, and I wasn't wrong on this one.

      The peach dutch baby was great! The two of us ate the whole thing in one sitting.

      Delete
  11. This is my kind of pasta dish. It looks delicious. We are swimming in basil so I will need to make this quickly.

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a perfect summer pasta meal - and a perfect Secret Recipe Club choice!

    ReplyDelete