Summer pasta dreams do come true... this recipe is proof. Ripe tomatoes lined my windowsill this morning and they looked like summer's precious jewels. Either raw or cooked, heirlooms tomatoes have the most incredible burst of sweet flavor. After coming up with about 20 different ideas for my 'maters, I landed on making this perfect summer garden linguine dish since I was really keen on twirling pasta around my fork at that moment.

If you are Italian, you can especially understand what it means to be in a particular mood to twirl your past. A sentence my mother has often uttered in her true Brooklyn form, "No, I don't feel like rigatoni today, I am really in the mood to twirl."My future self six months from now in the dead of winter will look back on this meal and try to remember a time when we could eat tomatoes that looked and tasted this good every single night. I'll wonder, "Did I eat this outside?" "In a tank top and shorts?" I will be so jealous of the lucky bitch duck that I am today. But for now, I am obsessed with myself for whipping up such a SIMPLE and incredibly DELICIOUS recipe that I can now share with my readers.

Banza makes linguine out of chickpeas and I think if I blindfolded you and put a bowl of regular linguine and a bowl of chickpea linguine in front of you-- it would be hard to tell the difference. I can just feel my skeptical brother rolling his eyes at this last sentence, as he tends to do towards me more than anyone I know... but I will keep you guys posted on his reaction when I serve him a bowl with chickpea spaghetti. Spoiler alert: He's gonna love it. Channeling my inner "Barefoot Contessa" as I was making dinner this evening, I put up a large pot of boiling water and added "lots of salt". She also always advises her viewers to use "good olive oil." She is my goddess.

The pasta took 10 minutes to cook and I find that the trickiest part about getting chickpea pasta to taste amazing is making sure that it gets cooked the right amount. Too short or too long of cook time can make it go from "YUM" to "MEH" and that's just not acceptable. The creation of this dish was actually inspired by a tomato pasta dish I usually make in the WINTER by Giada DeLaurentiis. Canned cherry tomatoes are what make it more of a winter meal.

Can this dish be made vegan? Yes.

Can you use regular pasta instead of chickpea? Of course.

Either version will be delish, but this version was what my heart was calling for on the day of creation. I even had burrata in the house that I put right on top, but if you don't have that, you can alternatively add cubed mozzarella, ricotta, or omit the soft cheese altogether. One day soon, hopefully, I will have videos of these recipes in my very own kitchen!

Tips for this dish:

1. I used kosher salt because it really draws out the juices of the tomatoes.

2. I save my Parmesan rinds in the freezer and then whip them out and add them into sauces, but you can always buy parmesan rinds at a reasonable price at many grocery stores. I know Whole Foods has them since I am there pretty much every day.

3. If you want this to be vegan, my advice is to blend half of the sauce so that it isn't too dry.4. I have made this kind of dish with macaroni (like penne rigate and rigatoni) as well and it is fantastic.

How beautiful is this pasta dish?

It just looks like summer. Mangia! Let me know what you think of this tomato recipe and please enjoy these precious days of summer.

Heirloom Tomato Sauce with Linguine*

Recipe Type: Entree

Author: Michele Wolfson Broder

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour 5 mins

Serves: 6

Adapted from Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/basic-parmesan-pomodoro

Ingredients

1/3 cup olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 nice pinches of crushed red pepper flakes
8 medium to large heirloom tomatoes, chopped
the rinds of 2-3 parmesan wedges
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (plus more for pasta water)
1 pound Banza chickpea linguine pasta (Can use regular pasta as well, even penne)
1 cup fresh basil, ribboned (leave a little extra for the end).
1/2 cup parmesan, grated
2 tablespoons room temperature butter
1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese or 4 oz mozzarella, cubed or burrata (optional)
black pepper
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a large pot set over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté on medium, high heat for 5-7 minutes until soft. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the garlic is lightly caramelized, golden, and fragrant. Slowly add the tomatoes and any juices left on your cutting board. Add the parmesan rind. Adjust the heat to medium to keep the sauce at a simmer. Simmer for 30-40 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Stir often to avoid sticking. Stir in the salt.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Boil the pasta until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water. Drain.
Once the sauce has thickened, you can either puree the sauce in a blender or leave it in this chunky form. Remove from the heat, remove the parmesan rinds from the sauce. Stir in the pasta, basil, parmesan cheese and butter. Toss to combine. Season to taste with salt, and pepper. If needed, thin the sauce with pasta cooking water.
Divide the pasta among bowls and top with ricotta cheese (or mozzarella or burrata, black pepper, cherry tomatoes, and basil. EAT!