Spaghetti with Raw Tomato Sauce

Generally I don’t see the point of deseeding tomatoes. Once you’ve skinned them and got the seeds out there hardly seems anything left –and the jelly-like seeds are half the fun of a tomato. But I wanted to try this. The boy wasn’t at all sure but we both found it light and summery.

500g ripe vine tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped

4tbsp extra virgin olive oil

18 leaves basil, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

350g spaghetti

Salt and pepper

The ingredient list is nice and simple, which is what you want on a hot day. We’ve hand picked the tomatoes at the local grocer – they need to be as ripe and as good as they can be if we’re not doing much too them. The boy is peeling them though he refuses to deseed them, so he’s picking the basil instead. It’s almost finished for the summer. Too much rain this year, though the coriander and dill has loved it.

Put the tomato, garlic, oil, basil and salt & pepper in a bowl and mix well and set aside for 30 minutes for the flavours to combine. You’re supposed to leave the garlic whole and remove it after its resting time. We love garlic, so we don’t.

Cook the spaghetti until al dente. Drain and mix with the raw tomato sauce while it’s still really hot. Serve straightaway, as this won’t keep. It’s deliciously fresh and light. We have it on the patio, though we can’t be bothered to pull the table out. We eat standing, twirling up spaghetti with our forks. He’s in a mellow mood. He’s put a Cannonball Adderly CD on the kitchen CD player. I love him when he’s like this.