Spaghetti with tomatoes recipe

Pasta and, in particular, spaghetti are one of the most known italian recipes abroad! When I was little we didn't use to eat it that often in Romania, even if my mom lived for some time in Italy, but I'm aware that this dish is now very common almost everywhere.

Of course, pasta and spaghetti have a very different taste in other countries: this is due to the different ingredients people find, or to what kind of recipes they follow (if you search for the english version you will probably have a rielaborated and modified version, far from the italian one).

Usually people of other countries try to line up a foreign recipe with their preferences or with the ingredients which they know that are available to the readers. Moreover, living in Italy doen't mean that some italian recipes are correctly followed: if you want to know how to cook italian dishes you have to find the right sources and be prepared to do things in a different way form how you are used to. 

Today I would like to show you the recipe of spaghetti with fresh tomatoes! 

All you need is:

    1. Spaghetti (more or less 100 gr per person)

    2. Two pieces of garlic

    3. Some fresh basil (dried basil is acceptable too)

    4. Little fresh tomatoes (more or less 6 per person)

        + Olive oil (two tablespoons)

        + Salt (one tablespoon for the water in which you will boil the pasta and some other for the tomato sauce)

        + Chilli pepper (dried, fresh, powdered peppers..)

You will need a pot and a pan: firstly, put some water in the pot (up to half) and the tablespoon of salt, and let it on the stove.

In the meanwhile, put the two tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and let it reach a high temperature, cut the garlic in two pieces (some use the garlic with its skin, but you can leave it and cut it) and put them in the oil. 

Now make sure that the garlic will release the aroma into the oil in a uniform manner and not just get burnt: raise the pan so the oil can cover entirely the garlic. Now you can add the fresh basil; if you have a dried one you can add it afterwards with the tomatoes. 

Before making the tomato sauce, put the pasta into the boiling water. 

Now that the garlic has taken a golden shade, you can take it off and throw the tomatoes into the pan: you should leave them cook until they create a coral-red sauce. You can add now the salt, the chilli pepper and the dried basil. 

This last step should be very fast and you will have an almost boiled pasta and the tomato sauce: now you can just take out the spaghetti from the water and put them into the sauce, together with some water from the pot.

I recommend to take the pasta out before it is ready so it can absorb the sauce without getting too soggy, as you can always put more water and cook it longer if you think you don't like the pasta "al dente". 

Now, the only thing you have to do is to try the pasta and adjust it according to your personal taste and, if you like it, add some parmesan! 

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