Caprese Pasta

Summer's Simplest Pleasures, Warmed

Caprese has always been a study in restraint — a reminder that the most honest food asks very little of you. When the tomatoes are ripe and the mozzarella is fresh, the work is mostly just stepping aside and letting them be themselves. This version draws those same quiet elements into something warmer, something you can gather around on an ordinary evening. There's a patience required, and a willingness to trust that simplicity, given a little heat and time, becomes something genuinely abundant.

Ingredients

• 1-1lb Alessi Organic Rigatoni
• 1/2 cups Alessi Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cups purple onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, cubed
• 1/4 cups Alessi Pine Nuts
• Alessi Sea Salt and Alessi Black Peppercorns
• 10-12 leaves fresh basil, cut into ribbons
• Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)
• Alessi Traditional Balsamic Reduction (optional)

Instructions

1. Prepare pasta “al dente” according to the package instructions.
2. While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in a medium saucepan.
3. Add butter, onions and cherry tomatoes and sauté 5 – 7 minutes.
4. Drain pasta and return to pot.
5. Add tomato mixture, mozzarella and pine nuts, and season with salt and pepper.
6. Add basil and mix.
7. Serve with grated cheese and Alessi Traditional Balsamic Reduction if desired.