This is an easy pasta dish that has a surprising depth of flavor.

• 160 grams of pasta¹
  1.

  I prefer to use long thin pasta such as spaghetti or tagliatelle for this recipe. Ideally, you want pasta that will catch the sauce such as bronze-cut pasta but, you do not need to go that fancy with your ingredients here. ↩︎

  (80 grams per person)
• some salt
• some olive oil
• a generous amount of pepper
• the equivalent of one and a half large cloves of garlic
• a dozen leaves of basil²
  2.

  Be careful not to use too much basil, it can quickly become overpowering and almost bitter. ↩︎

• 100 grams (roughly) of cherry tomatoes³
  3.

  They tend to be sweeter and more flavorful. If you have good, flavorful, normal tomatoes then feel free to dice and use them. ↩︎

• optionally about 30 grams of butter

• rince the basil leaves and dice them very finely
• crush the garlic
• cut the cherry tomatoes in fourth⁴
  4.

  You could blend them for a smooth sauce, but a bit of homogeneity is not bad and makes the recipe easier and faster. ↩︎

• fill a pan with water and bring it to a boil
• add a generous amount of salt to your pasta water⁵
  5.

  The pasta will taste better and it will help to salt the sauce later. ↩︎

• add the pasta when the water starts boiling and keep cooking for about 10 minutes (until your pasta is cooked)

• put the olive oil in a wok
• add a very generous amount of pepper and cook on high heat until the pepper becomes fragrant⁶
  6.

  Be careful not to overdo it and let your pepper burn. ↩︎

• add the crushed garlic and finely diced basil
• add the tomatoes
• let simmer until the pasta are ready

• once the pasta is cooked, add a splash of pasta water to the wok, this will help with the consistency of the sauce
• strain the pasta and add them to the wok (it is fine if there is some pasta water left with the pasta, we added pasta water to the wok anyway)
• optionally add the diced butter
• start mixing on high heat until you reach the desired consistency⁷
  7.

  I recommend aiming for slightly more liquid than your sweet spot, the sauce will thicken further once served ↩︎

This recipe is an array of classic techniques put together to produce a pasta dish with a (cherry) tomatoes and basil sauce.