Caty's Summer Pasta

My dear Italian friend Caty has also been a huge part of me learning to cook authentic Italian food. Her family lives just outside Florence and has an open door policy so meals there range from 5 to 35 people every day. This pasta is one of Caty's go to easy meals. It's more of a summer pasta, however. Food in Italy is very dipendent on the seasons. There are things you just can't get in the fall or things you just can't get in summer. I actually enjoy this little Italian quirk as it helps me to appreciate and indulge in the foods each season. As I've learned to cook quantities have kinda gone out the window so I'll do my best to help you all out. You want the sauce to have some juice to it but a good even ration between the tomatoes and cheese

diced tomatoes
diced smoked or regular mozzarella (not the shredded stuff) kroger, fresh market,etc. sells this and it comes in a big soft block or in a plastic tub floating in water. either one is fine.lots of chopped fresh basil
olive oil
salt to taste
any short type pasta- usually penne.

mix all together except the pasta at room temp.  It's best to buy an actual good brand of pasta like barilla- something made with grano duro. When cooking the pasta we always use coarse salt to salt the water. No oil is added in Italian cookoing just salt. We usually say 100g. pasta for an average woman and about 150-200 for an average man. You want a good sized pot of boiling water so the pasta can dance around in it. The salt amount is roughly about 1 TB for a medium sized pot. As the pasta cooks give it a taste to see if more salt is needed. The pasta should have a hint of saltiness to it. An Italian gradma told me once if you don't get hte saltiness of the pasta right you can never make up for it by making hte pasta sauce saltier. So I guess this would be an integral part of pasta cooking. We also like our pasta al dente with a smidge of bite to it- not rubber slimy.

 Italian Mozzarella Balls... oh so good.