A simple spaghetti dish with a fresh tomato, garlic and basil sauce, finished with grated Parmesan. Jamie's tip - it's important to season the cooking water so that the pasta can absorb it as it cooks. Once you’ve made this a few times you can add other simple ingredients, such as baby spinach, chopped rocket leaves, or fresh or frozen peas, to your basic tomato sauce to completely transform it.
Prep
10 min
Cook
15 min
Serves
2
Difficulty
Easy
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Ingredients
garlic cloves 1 (sliced)
red chillies ½ (sliced)
fresh basil 1 handful (leaves picked)
wholewheat spaghetti 150 g (boiled)
chopped tomatoes 200 g
Parmesan 30 g (grated)
olive oil 1 tbsp
salt pinch
black pepper pinch
Method
Prep
Peel and finely slice the garlic. If using, finely slice your red chillies (halve and deseed first if you don’t want the sauce to be too hot).
Pick the basil leaves from the stalks and set the leaves aside. Finely slice the stalk.
Cook the pasta
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, add the wholewheat spaghetti and cook according to the packet instructions.
Make the sauce
Meanwhile, place a second large saucepan over a medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the garlic, red chillies and basilstalk and give them a stir.
As soon as the garlic begins to brown slightly add most of the basil leaves and the tinned chopped tomatoes. Turn the heat up high and stir for 1 minute, then season with salt and pepper.
Add the spaghetti & serve
Drain the wholewheat spaghett in a colander, then transfer it to the pan of sauce and stir well. Taste and add more salt and pepper if you think it needs it.
Add the spaghetti to your bowl. Roughly tear over the remaining basil leaves and finely grate over some Parmesan.
