TOMATO & MOZZARELLA SPAGHETTI

I think this is a Jamie Oliver recipe which I ripped out of one of the Sunday Times magazines - my husband Pascal loves a simple pasta and so this was right up his street. I liked the fact it was easy to make and didn't need a million ingredients, and Arabella loved that there were no hidden extra vegetables! It took about 15 minutes.

Ingredients for 2 people:

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
1/4 of a fresh red chilli, sliced (optional - I left this out)
400g ripe cherry tomatoes, halved
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
15g fresh basil leaves, torn
200g spaghetti (or linguine or tagliatelle)
125g ball of buffalo mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese to serve

Finely slice the garlic and chilli (if using) and half the tomatoes.

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan over a medium high heat and then add the garlic and chilli for two minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes, season with salt and tear in most of the basil leaves, setting a few nice ones to one side. Add a good splash of boiling water and reduce the heat to medium, then cover and cook for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water according to the packet's instructions - mine took 7 minutes.

Reserving some of the cooking water (just a touch), drain the pasta and then mix with the sauce and half the mozzarella (add the cooking water if the sauce needs loosening, mine didn't).

Finally divide between your plates, tear over the remaining mozzarella, sprinkle with the reserved basil leaves and serve.

We also added a drizzle of olive oil and a grating of Parmesan. 

The tomato sauce really surprised me, it was so sweet and full of flavour and I loved the basil in it, plus the mozzarella melted into the pasta - it was all a bit pizza like! Arabella actually had goats cheese rather than mozzarella and she said that worked brilliantly as well. The whole dish was very light and fresh and quick and easy to make - a real winner.