6 Minute 6 Ingredient Simple Summer Pasta

Wouldn’t you agree that summer means less is more? It’s especially true when it comes to food. With fresh produce at its peak, it needs very little embellishment before serving. Fewer ingredients and less time in the kitchen equal more time savoring simple pleasures like this 6 minute 6 ingredient summer pasta dish.

This thin spaghetti takes 6 minutes to boil, which was plenty of time to cook the other ingredients in a deep skillet. First, peel your shrimp and put the shells into a saucepan with water to boil. Shrimp stock is priceless and it’s integral to this dish in my opinion. Always boil your shells and freeze the stock for later if you’re not planning to use it right away. What if you bought shrimp that was already peeled? It’s not ideal, but it will work. You can make a quick fish stock using dried bonito flakes from an Asian market or maybe some clam juice. A little chicken broth would do in a pinch.

Ingredients for 2 Main Dish Servings of Summer Pasta:

• half a box of thin spaghetti
• 3 medium sized tomatoes, chopped
• 10 jumbo shrimp, peeled (shells boiled in water)
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• a couple glugs of olive oil
• a palm full of chopped fresh basil

I started by putting garlic, tomatoes and olive oil into a skillet and cooking on high for a couple of minutes before adding shrimp that I had seasoned with salt. Cooked a few more minutes until shrimp had turned pink and opaque, meaning they were finished. With tongs, I pulled al dente pasta out of its boiling pot and into the skillet of sauce. Tossing with tomatoes and shrimp and judging how much liquid to add, I poured in some strained shrimp stock that had been boiling on the back burner. You could whisk in a smidgeon of butter if you were so inclined.

Here’s where intuitive cooking comes in: How you treat your tomatoes depends on their quality. If mine had been a bit juicier, I might not have cooked them at all. Instead, I would have cooked the shrimp in garlic and olive oil and added tomatoes at the end with the shrimp stock just to warm through. In this case, cooking the tomatoes for a short amount of time allowed them to slump down and release some juicy goodness.

Ready to try something similar with clams or mussels? Find out How to Get Skillful With Shellfish next.

What do you think? Are you cooking without a recipe yet? With fresh, quality ingredients, it’s so easy to create a delicious meal without any fuss. Fish filets also cook quickly and pair with pasta with ease. Read My Easy Process For Breezy Success With Fish for more ideas on this topic.