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Jump to RecipeWhat fits better to the summer than a Caprese Salad, a “salad” containing tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, basil, of course olive oil and “Aceto”, a sweet sour balsamic vinegar. But today I tried something new for you! I created with the typical ingredients a simple and healthy Caprese Pasta dish!
And it works very well I have to say, you definitely should try my recipe out! Within 20 minutes ready to enjoy!
Where is the Caprese Salad from?
Of course, it’s an Italian dish, but i would say in the meantime it’s well known over the globe. This dish stands like no other dish for the Italian food culture and the colors of the ingredients are symbolizing the Italian flag. Green, white, red from the left to the right. Easy to prepare and refreshing during hot summer evenings, combined with a fresh bread… Mmmmhhh! Yum!
Why is the Caprese Pasta considered healthy?
In this recipe I replaced the normal spaghetti with whole wheat spaghetti, the mozzarella is light, meaning fat reduced. Whole-grain pasta is lower in calories, higher in fiber and is containing certain micronutrients than refined pasta. The fiber is good for your body as it “feeds” the positive bacteria in your abdomen and these are burning more fat! Additionally you will be sated for a longer period, as the fiber needs to get digested and this takes longer than regular pasta. Additionally I replaced the basil with arugula, as I invited a friend, which does not like the taste of the basil.
FAQ to my Caprese Pasta
There are many options to replace the “normal” spaghetti’s with pasta which is made out of rice or lentils. Works also very well, if you find a good brand. But I would suggest not to steer that long the pasta in the pot, as the gluten-free replacements are breaking quite fast.
Sure, replace the mozzarella cheese with a vegan one, or make your own one out of cashew. I can recommend this recipe!
Al dente means still firm, when bitten. When you cook the noodles al dente, you can strain them and add them to the sauce, this is how you ensure that the noodles are soaking more of the sauce. This makes the entire dish more flavorful!
Caprese Pasta
Equipment
- 1 knife sharp
- 1 cutting board
- 1 cooking pot
Ingredients
- 60 g spaghetti pasta whole grain
- 2 tbsp Salt
- 6 pcs cherry tomatoes
- 1 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes chopped
- 20 g arugula
- 5 g basil
- 1 pcs mozzarella cheese fat reduced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 pcs pearl onion
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch pepper out of the grinder preferable
Instructions
Preparation
- Bring a pot of water to boil, add a pinch of salt. For pasta I recommend 3 liters of water and 2 tbsp of salt (0,8 gallons, 2 tbsp). When the water starts to cook, add the spaghetti and boil it for the recommended time on the packaging, should be "al dente" meaning still firm, when bitten. Strain it after. Keep a little amount of the cooking water.
- Chop the garlic, onion and sun-dried tomatoes, cut the cherry tomatoes into half. Wash the arugula and basil.
- In the same pot, add the olive oil and simmer the onion, garlic, and tomatoes. Add a pinch of salt, pepper, the spaghetti and mix everything. At the end add a little bit of the cooking water to make it more creamy.
- For the plating add the arugula and basil, transfer everything in a deep plate, pull the mozzarella on top.
