As much as I love to tweak recipes to make them my own, there are a few that I simply cannot. This recipe Pasta Caprese is a classic and doesn’t need any changes.
I’ve been reading a few food blogs and other articles lately that discuss the dos and don’ts of copying someone else’s recipe. This is a huge issue amongst food and recipe writers, as recipes can’t be legally protected very well. Actually only the way you’ve written them down can. Your words, the order and the way you explain how to make the recipe, well, that’s yours. So if I rewrite another blogger’s recipe in my own words, technically it could be called my recipe.
I hate that.
When I am inspired by a dish of someone else, I love to give him or her the proper credits. Like I did with my zucchini cups for instance. And I only can hope that others will do so as well when my recipes inspire them to write about.
I also read about a rule. That you should at least three big changes in order to call a recipe your own, if you’re inspired by someone else’s. But what about the classics, the dishes that are culturally inherited, handed over from generation to generation, recipes everybody know?
Well, you still can cook and write about them. But I don’t call them mine. I’ll only tell you my favorite way to cook them.
Like this pasta with tomato, mozzarella and basil. The classic Italian combination – representing their red, white and green flag – can be used in multiple ways. On pizzas, in lasagnas, in very easy salads (just leave out the pasta of the recipe below). And in my favorite summer recipe. It’s fast, it hardly involves cooking and it’s great to eat when the tomatoes are on their best. Now, in summer!
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RECIPE PASTA CAPRESE [vegetarian]
An easy-peasy summer pasta for 2. The only thing you really have to care about is to use the most ripened tomatoes and real buffalo mozzarella. You only use three main ingredients, so they’d better be good. The best.You need:
2 hands of pasta
4 hands of fresh, ripened tomatoes
2 large bulbs of buffalo mozzarella – or just 1 if you’re on a budget
your best olive oil
pepper and salt
1 hand of fresh basil leaves
You do:
Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot filled with water to boil. Salt it and cook the pasta until done.
Chop the tomatoes into bite size pieces, discard the hard core.
Mix. After draining the pasta, mix it with the tomatoes, some olive oil, pepper and salt through it.
Finish. Tear the mozzarella and the basil with your hands into pieces and mix trough the pasta as well.
Tip: As you can see, I actually haven’t measured the amounts I use in my recipe for Pasta Caprese. I love a huge amount of tomatoes over pasta, so I just use them a lot. Great if your tomato plants (or farmers markets) keep growing them, right?
Enjoy!
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