ready in 15 and bursting with flavour

When you’ve worked all day and everyone comes home starving, being able to make dinner in a short amount of time (and minimal effort!) is key.  It drives me crazy when my family is so hungry they start grabbing snacks (crackers, cheese, etc) and it’s like…wait – I’m making dinner, just wait! You know how it is…if there’s snacking, then no one is actually hungry for dinner, so then they don’t eat very much at dinner…but then they’re hungry an hour later when it’s bedtime and want more snacks! I am guilty of this too – I remember doing this to my mom as a kid.

Well this dish won’t make them wait long at all – you can get it done in 15 minutes!  It’s super simple and very flavourful, even my husband who isn’t a big fan of pasta enjoyed it. The trick is timing – to get everything done within 15 minutes you have to multitask a little bit. But I’ve written it all out for you to follow step by step, I promise you can do it! Give it a try and share with me how it goes!

I was lucky enough to have all local fresh ingredients from the farmer’s market or my garden, which made everything taste really extra special. If you can find your ingredients locally, try it!

prep: 5 min      cook: 12 min       yield: 2-3 servings

what you need:

• 2 generous cups of grape tomatoes (or cherry or any small tomatoes)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 handful of chives
• 2 banana peppers (or you can use cubanelle or anaheim peppers)
• about 1/2 cup crumbled feta
• spaghetti (dry, about 1/4 of 500g package)
• cooking oil (I use grape seed oil)
• basil leaves (optional)

what to do:

1. Fill up a kettle to max and turn it on.
2. Get a large pot, fill it with 1″ of water, lid on, on high heat.
3. Rinse tomatoes and cut in half. (Fastest way is to have them sandwiched between two bottoms of two plates and slice all at the same time).
4. Smash garlic and remove skin – chop finely.
5. Wash peppers, remove top and seeds then slice into bite size strips or chunks.
6. By now the kettle should be boiled – add the water to your large pot. Add one tbsp of salt to the water.  Put the lid back on.
7. In a large non-stick pan on medium, add 1 tbsp cooking oil. Add peppers, garlic and tomatoes, stirring occasionally, for about 1-2 minutes. Once you smell the garlic and the tomatoes start to release their liquid, add a pinch of salt and pepper. Cover with lid and turn the heat down to low.
8. Add dry pasta to boiling water – cook for about 8-9 minutes (each package / brand may differ slightly).
9. At about 4 minutes into cooking your pasta, turn off the heat for the tomatoes.
10. At this time you can wash and roughly chop the chives.
11. Once the pasta is al dente, save a little bit of the pasta water (about 1/4 cup) and drain the rest.
12. Toss pasta and tomato mixture in a large serving dish. Top with crumbled feta and chives, then toss to combine everything. If it seems dry, add 1 tbsp of pasta cooking liquid at a time to moisten. Top with fresh basil leaves if desired.
13. Serve warm and enjoy!