Linguine with Crudaiola (Uncooked Tomato Sauce)

This recipe came from Bon Appetit, but it never seems to have made it to Epicurious. The sauce needs to marinate at least half an hour, and longer if you have the time. So make that ahead. There's almost nothing to be done after that, so this is a good dish for serving to friends, with salad and crusty bread, as a simple but yummy supper.

• 1 3/4 pounds ripe tomatoes, chopped
  Since these are not going to be cooked, try to get them as fresh and firm as you can.
• 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
  This seems to be about 2 ounces of basil, which is a lot. Buy a four ounce container, if you can find one, instead of two one-ounce ones (which may well cost more), and use the rest for something else.
• 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
  The right way to do this is to heat a small, heavy skillet until it's good and hot and then put in the pine nuts and stir them until they're browned a bit. (Test it by flicking water off your fingers. When the water jumps and spits, it's ready.) The nuts will toast very quickly this way, and you won't be as likely to burn them.
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped (or pressed)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
  
• 1 pound linguine
  The original recipe called for taglierini, but I've never seen it
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 1/2 ounces)

Combine the first seven ingredients in a bowl and marinate in the fridge for at least half an hour and as long as three hours.
Cook the pasta until it's almost done and definitely still firm. (It will cook a bit more later.) Reserving a cup of the liquid, drain the pasta, but don't shake it dry. Put the pasta back in the pot, add the sauce, and turn the heat back up to medium-high. Toss until the sauce is heated through and it coats the pasta, adding water as needed, in small amounts, to keep everything moist. Remove from the heat and add the cheese, tossing to blend, and add a little more water, if need be. Check the seasoning and serve with additional cheese.

Recipes for Isobel

Our daughter Isobel is living in an apartment this summer in Providence, and so is cooking for herself. When she was home a couple weekends ago, she was looking through some of our recipes, and I told her I'd post some of them here so she didn't have to take pictures of them. So here's the first batch: A bunch of recipes from Bon Appetit.

• Spicy Marinated Mozzarella with Oregano and Capers
  An absolutely killer appetizer that is incredibly easy.
• Orzo Salad with Feta, Olives, and Bell Peppers
  A summer pasta salad. Filling and delicious. We make it several times a year.
• Spicy Grilled Shrimp With Rice And Mango Salad And Sesame Sugar Snap Peas
  This is what we had said night when Isobel was home. It's one of her favorites. Pretty easy, again, and wonderful. The rice and mango salad can be made by itself, too, and is good cold.
• Shrimp And Leek Linguine In White Wine Sauce
  A fairly simple, and really good, pasta dish. Very light. The leeks get melted, more or less. Be warned that this makes a ton. Nancy and I made it the other night, have both had it for lunch, and still have a lunch-sized portion left. Next time, we'll make half.
• Pasta With Kalamata Olives And Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce
  More pasta. This one has deep, Mediterranean flavors.

Greek-Style Noodles

This is a recipe that we adapted from one in the Vegetarian Express Lane Cookbook, by Sara Fritschner. It's a fast and easy summery pasta.

Ingredients

• 12 ounces pasta
  We prefer capellini (angel hair), but you can use any long, thin pasta
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Small red onion, sliced
• 1/2 cup parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup greens of scallions, chopped
• Zest and juice of half a lemon
• 2 tbsp white wine
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano (or 1 tsp dried)
• 8 oz feta cheese, crumbled

Directions

Heat the oil in a good-sized skillet. (The pasta will be added later.) Add the garlic and onion and cook until starting to soften. Then add the parsley, scallion greens, oregano, lemon, and wine, and cook about two minutes, just to wilt the parsley a bit. Lower the heat to keep this stuff warm, if need be.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta until not quite al dente. (It's best to try to time this so the noodles are done just when the sauce is.) Save about half a cup of the cooking liquid and drain the noodles.

Add the noodles to the sauce. Increase the heat a little bit, and mix the whole thing together. Add half the feta and cook until the sauce becomes just a bit creamy.

Serve the remaining feta alongside the noodles.