pasta con tomate

My Global Pantry is your weekly guide for what to make out of seasonal produce and pantry staples. Mondays are free for everyone - snacks, sides, and easy cooking inspiration. Every Wednesday I share a new full-length weeknight dinner or WFH lunch recipe for PANTRY CLUB members. Join here to unlock every recipe and get a new one for your rotation each week.

To continue our Monday series of very simple meal ideas, let me present what I’m calling “pasta con tomate,” chilled spaghetti dressed only with grated raw tomato, garlic, salt, and olive oil (and anchovies, if you want). It’s fitting given last night’s results that I’ve had Spanish food on the brain lately, so both of our recipes this week have a nod towards the flavors you’d find at a sunny tapas bar.

Before anyone gets upset about swapping the iconic toast for pasta, let me say that you should absolutely also make the classic - rub a halved clove of garlic across a nice piece of toasted bread, top with grated tomato and salt, and drizzle all over with good olive oil. It’s one of the most delicious things you can do with a ripe tomato and today’s variation is just a desire to bring that to even more of my meals.

By stirring the flavored oil from the anchovy tin through the sauce at the end you get a hidden boost of umami, and then just a couple of filets on top can be twirled through forkfuls of spaghetti. You can leave this out if you prefer, but if you do go for it, use one of your nicer tins - I like Ortiz.

Have a great week.

Chat soon - Susanna

P.S. if you’re into this one, you’ll also love the tomato chili cold noodles from a few weeks ago. They have even more depth of flavor, and a big bowl can hang out in the fridge for multiple meals in the days ahead.

Serves one as a very nice light lunch, multiply for more.

1 large tomato (~200g)

1 garlic clove

100g spaghetti

2 anchovies (optional but very good, I like Ortiz)

Salt

Extra virgin olive oil

Using the large holes of a box grater, grate the tomato into a bowl and discard the leftover skin. Using the small holes, grate the clove of garlic into the same bowl. Add a pinch of salt and a big drizzle of olive oil and mix, then set aside for later.

Cook the spaghetti in generously salted boiling water until soft (past al dente). Drain and rinse with cold water until cooled. Shake off excess water, then add the pasta to the bowl with the tomatoes and mix.

Pour a drizzle of oil from the anchovy tin into the pasta, then mix and serve. Finish with a couple of whole anchovies on top.

On Wednesday paid readers will get the recipe for these prawns and olives in a briny garlic broth, perfect for lunch mopped up with toasted bread, or as an easy sharing dish to please a crowd.

Thanks for reading! Learn more about my journey into food and what PANTRY CLUB is all about here, and follow @myglobalpantry on IG for more behind-the-scenes of my recipe testing.

FYI, I may earn a commission from links shared in this message. I only share things that I genuinely enjoy, which I think you might as well.