Spaghetti with sun dried tomatoes

Spaghetti with sun dried tomatoes 

So give me the simplest of Pasta recipes and I am a happy girl. You see unlike what many people think Italian food doesn't always require a lot of cheese or heavy sauces. Of course the meatball sauce is to die for but the pasta dishes I like best are so simple that when during the worst of the summers or for that matter even the pleasant winters its a real treat for people who enjoy individual flavours but likes keeping it simple. In fact I once came across a recipe for Spaghetti which simply used breadcrumbs and anchovies. Hard to believe but true.

While we are almost getting sun dried with this terrible weather in Calcutta I decided it was time to sun dry some tomatoes and 3 days of glorious basking in the sun led to a jar of flavoured delights . Once my sun dried tomatoes were ready I was only to excited to use them and then what I did was simply use it with my favourite pasta Aglio Olio peperoncino. Now many a restaurants will have you believe that Aglio Olio has a host of ingredients with olives chopped in , herbs , Parmesan but the simple truth is all it needs is garlic, chili peppers, salt, olive oil and Spaghetti or any other pasta. So this is simple, all I did was add in some Sun dried tomatoes  and a bit of herb and my pasta was bursting with flavours .

Here is what you need for each serving of this pasta dish  :-

100gm of Spaghetti
2 medium sized garlic cloves
2 ripe chili pepper
6 to 7 Sun dried tomatoes
1 tsp dried or fresh basil (With the scorching temperature most of my fresh herbs are quickly drying out and I simply grind them to make dried herbs)
1 tbsp oil from the jar of sun dried tomatoes (This bit makes the dish unbelievably tasty)
Salt as per taste

All you need to do is cook the pasta as per instructions and if you like it al dente as I do cook it one minute less than the given time on the packet. Drain the water. meanwhile heat 2 tsp of the flavoured oil and add minced garlic and let the aroma fill your kitchen and immediately add minced chili peppers and then salt and the cooked Spaghetti, add the basil and toss around and before serving drizzle with 1 tsp flavoured oil and the sun dried tomatoes and you are in for a treat if you like things simple yet bursting with flavours.