Caprese Pasta

Today I will be sharing my quintessential go-to weeknight meal. It's fast, easy, filling, and - most importantly - delicious! The stars of the dish are tomato, mozzarella, and basil - components of a traditional caprese salad. I love to make this pasta dish after a busy day at work, hard workout at my martial arts class, or if I just want some extra time in the evening to say... write a blog entry.

 

Any short, tubular pasta will work for this dish. I prefer corkscrew or cavatappi pasta for its shape and texture. Before you start prepping the rest of the ingredients, go ahead and get a big salted pot of water on the burner so it can start heating up.

Feel free to adjust any of the ingredients to your liking. The original form of this recipe was something that caught my eye while watching America's Test Kitchen. Since then, I've altered the ingredients to make my own version of the pasta.

My favorite type of mozzarella to use for this pasta is Sargento [Whole Milk]. It's inexpensive, it's delicious, and it has a nice block shape to cut bite-sized cubes out of.

Two tips for making this pasta: 1) Wait until the pasta has started cooking to take the mozzarella out of the fridge and cut it up. 2) After you've drained the pasta, immediately pour it over the top of the mozzarella cubes and other mixed ingredients and stir it all together. These steps will help ensure your mozzarella will be soft but still retain their cube shape due to the hot pasta mixing with the cold cheese. In the past, I've found that when I didn't follow these steps, the taste of the pasta didn't change at all, but the cubes of mozzarella started melting together into large clumps because they were too warm.

And there you have it: an incredibly satisfying meal in no time at all!


Caprese Pasta [Serves 4-6]

Ingredients:

• 1 lb corkscrew pasta
• 3-4 medium tomatoes, roughly diced
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 10 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
• 16 oz block of mozzarella, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Directions:

Bring salted pot of water to rolling boil.

Add diced tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil, and sliced basil to medium bowl. Stir until combined.

Add pasta to boiling water and cook until al dente as per box instructions.

Take mozzarella out of the refrigerator and slice into 1/2 cubes. Add on top of tomato mixture.

Drain cooked pasta and immediately pour onto mozzarella and tomato mixture. Quickly mix until combined. Serve.