Use your cupboard ingredients for a vegetarian treat for two
Ingredients
- 8 small new potatoes, quartered, or a large baking potato peeled and cut into small chunks
- 200g pasta shells (about 2 large handfuls)
- 4 medium tomatoes, the riper the better
- 3 tbsp good quality olive oil
- 1 fat clove of garlic, finely chopped or crushed
- a pinch of crushed chillies or chilli powder
- grated cheese, whatever you have, to serve
Method
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Pour a boiled kettleful of water into a medium pan, salt the water and bring it back to the boil over a highish heat. Tip the potatoes into the water and boil for 5 minutes. Tip the pasta into the same water, give it a stir and continue to boil everything for about 10 minutes or until the pasta and potatoes feel soft when prodded with a fork.
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While the pasta is cooking, chop the tomatoes into chunky pieces, then chop them a little bit more, as you would for a salsa. Scrape the tomatoes and their juice off the board into a bowl. Season generously with salt and pepper and mix in the olive oil, garlic and crushed chilli until it’s all amalgamated.
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When the pasta and potatoes are cooked, toss them in the bowl with the tomato sauce until evenly coated. Divide the pasta between two bowls and serve with a sprinkling of grated cheese.