Cooking for One: Colourful Heirloom Tomato and Basil Pasta Salad

It’s too pretty to eat…

Here’s another Cooking for One recipe and a very simple and colourful one as well!

I think I get easily amused with weird pasta shapes and colours (as evidenced by this previous post and this one), so I was really happy when I found these coloured bowtie pasta on sale at Winners. These bowties were naturally coloured with turmeric, beets, and squid ink. The red portion of the pasta becomes a little dull after cooking the pasta, but the black and yellow parts remain vibrant after cooking. I’m inspired to colour my own pasta from scratch, but first I’m going to need to find out where I can get my hands on squid ink and a pasta maker!

Since these bowties are so colourful, I thought about pairing the pasta with some colourful heirloom tomatoes. I was thinking of what kind of pasta dish to make, and I decided to stick to something simple.

Although it’s very simple, it turned out pretty well for a dish that does not require a lot of ingredients and effort. It’s convenient to pack for lunch and also portion controlled (lol).

Eat the rainbow,

– Ricelessasian

Colourful Heirloom Tomato and Basil Pasta Salad (Serves 1)
Adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients*

~1 cup of coloured bowtie pasta
1/4 cup of chopped heirloom tomatoes, including the juice released
2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
2-3 large basil leaves, chopped
1/4 – 1/2 clove of garlic, finely minced
2-3 tbsp. crumbled feta cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

*Adjust amount of ingredients according to your taste. Experiment by adding ingredients such as onions, balsamic vinegar, Parmesan cheese, and olives. This is just a guide to how much I used for one serving, and I just used what I had at home.

Directions

1. In a non-reactive bowl, mix together olive oil, heirloom tomatoes, chopped basil leaves, and finely minced garlic. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Let this mixture sit while you are cooking the pasta. TIP: If you don’t like the taste of raw garlic, you can sauté the garlic in olive oil first before mixing all the ingredients.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions. Once cooked, toss warm pasta with the heirloom tomato mixture. Toss with crumbled feta cheese. Eat it as it is, or refrigerate and eat it as a cold pasta salad.