A New York Times recipe for pasta, nice for the summertime.

Time: 20 minutes

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 pound cut pasta, like ziti or penne, or long pasta, like linguine or spaghetti
1/2 stick butter (4 tablespoons), cut into pieces
1/2 cup chopped mint leaves
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. When it boils, cook pasta until it is tender but not mushy. Drain pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup of cooking liquid.
2. Toss pasta in a warmed bowl with 2 or 3 tablespoons cooking liquid, the butter, mint and half the cheese. Taste and adjust seasoning, then serve, passing remaining Parmesan at the table.

Yield: 3 to 4 servings

The article accompanying the recipe notes a couple things. First, you could use peppermint if you wanted a stronger mint (the author used spearmint). Second, you can play with the amount of mint: the author notes that 1/2 a cup announces the mint's presence, while a full cup "screams it, and that's kind of fun, too." Finally, for those on the "fat watch," you can substitute olive oil for the butter, but it won't turn out as nice as if you just cut the amount of butter in half. Tweet blog comments powered by Disqus