Ingredients
600 grams mixed cherry tomatoes - you can get a prepacked box of all colours from most good grocers
Few handfuls of basil
2 tablespoons of baby capers (or more to taste)
Generous slosh of extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Bunch of chives
Dash of red wine vinegar
2 cloves of garlic (less if you’re going for a romantic picnic)
Good quality Orocchiette (small shells or elbows will also do well)
Small nob of butter (naughty optional - gives a slightly creamier, richer texture)
Preparation
In a mixing bowl roughly smush the cherry tomatoes with a potato masher or cocktail stick (a few tomato seeds in the eye are unavoidable). You want a nice wet mix but not pulverised.
Finely chop up your chives, shred the basil and add to the tomatoes.
Add in your lemon juice, capers, garlic, salt and pepper (I like plenty!) and a few good sloshes of olive oil (again plenty).
Cook your pasta in salted boiling water for two thirds the time directed on the packet. You want your past to be firmer than al dente when you drain it.
Transfer the pasta to a plastic container with a lid - it should still be piping hot and wet.
Add your tomato mix, the nob of butter and mix thoroughly.
Place the lid on top and leave on the bench for an hour or two.
The pasta will soak up the juices and become an amazing, tangy picnic of deliciousness.
Eaten at room temperature!
