Carbo loading for the big race.

On Sunday we hosted my brother-in-law Mike and his friend Budd at the Mulkey Inn. They were in town to run in the SF Marathon. So we had a pasta dinner to get them carb loaded for the race. (Bet you thought I was carbo loading for a race, right? Ha. Ha. Ha!)

Since tomatoes are so plentiful I looked for a summery recipe that called for fresh tomatoes. I found one in my Food & Wine Magazine Cookbook, Quick from Scratch Pasta. I made another recipe from this cookbook this week that was totally delish, Tortellini with Garlic Sage Butter Sauce.  But more about that on another day.

The recipe I chose was Fusilli with Summer Tomato Sauce. The picture in the cookbook looked so fresh and yummy I knew it would be perfect. 

The sauce is uncooked. You basically blend everything in the food processor and pour it on the hot pasta. It kind of reminded me of gazpacho. The taste was so fresh and full of tomato and basil flavor. Perfect for a summer pasta dinner.  The key to this recipe is fresh ingredients. Fresh, ripe tomatoes. Good olive oil. And good, quality pasta. I used a variety of heirloom tomatoes of every color.

Since the sauce is not cooked I used olive oil that we don't use for cooking, but use for dipping bread, salad dressings, etc.  You can use your evoo that use for cooking. But if you have another you might want to try it.

Fusilli with Summer Tomato Sauce

2 pounds ripe tomatoes

1 large clove garlic, minced

3 T good olive oil

1 1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. fresh ground pepper

2/3 c. lightly packed fresh basil

1 pound fusilli pasta

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

1. In a food processor or blender, combine the tomatoes, garlic, oil salt and pepper and puree. Add the basil and pulse just to mix.

2. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the fusilli until just done. Drain the pasta and toss with the sauce and the parmesan cheese. Let sit for about 1 minute to allow the pasta to absorb some of the liquid. Serve with additional parmesan.

And of course you need wine.  Our cyclists didn't drink any wine. But Don and I had a glass with dinner.  He cracked open a bottle of  '06 Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley that we picked up at Sebastiani winery in Sonoma.  

It was quite tasty.

In case you're wondering, Mike did great in the race.  YEAH!!!!