Pasta Caprese

This Cook's Illustrated recipe was the third dish that I made the other day when I roasted a pork sirloin (part of a 4-pack we got from Costco), and a Serious Eats.com recipe of sweet potatoes with lime-cilantro dressing.

The pasta dish easily become one of my favorites!

You start by whisking a quarter cup of EVOO (as Rachael Ray calls it), about two teaspoons of lemon juice, a finely-minced shallot, some salt and pepper in a bowl. Gently toss tomatoes that you've cut into a half-inch dice and then let marinate for no longer than 45 minutes.

Then, take 12 ounces of fresh mozzarella that you've also diced into half-inch cubes, place on a plate and freeze for 10 minutes.

Boil your pasta, drain. Then add the pasta and mozzarella to your tomatoes and toss. Add a quarter cup of chopped, fresh basil at the end.

I didn't have enough mozzarella cheese for this recipe, so at the last moment I added a few handfuls of grated fresh parmesan cheese and we might use this kind of cheese instead of the mozzarella in the future, it was so good!

I love this dish because it tastes so fresh! And it seems lighter than other pasta dishes that we love -- Giada's goat cheese pasta, or even her lemon spaghetti.