This is our third recipe for the Saturday cooking group Weekend in a French Kitchen cooking from Daniel Boulud's Cafe Boulud Cookbook, Andrew Carmellini's Bow Tie Pasta with Tomato, Arugula, and Mozzarella, found on page 306.
The ingredient list: tomatoes, olive oil, basil, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, white pepper, bow tie pasta, Parmesan cheese, arugula, mozzarella, and baby cherry tomatoes.
This book contains a section of recipes that are not French recipes, but recipes from "around the world." I gave serious consideration to just making and posting the French recipes from the book, that is why I joined the group, and letting the others sort of slide by, especially the pasta ones as I am already posting in a pasta group. That said, I felt a tug to just go ahead and make this one as it looked easy, delicious, and had a couple of techniques I wanted to explore (i.e. the making of the flavored oil with the garlic and basil then straining the solids out and also the peeled baby cherry tomatoes, seriously, is it worth peeling a baby cherry tomato?).
It kept calling my name, so I caved in, hauled out my pasta pot, and went to work. And I am most happy that I did as this recipe was fun to make and the taste was full of layers of flavor from the well-chosen ingredients. My favorite find was the burst of flavor and sweetness from the peeled baby cherry tomatoes, oh that pop of fresh tomato flavor was such a treat! It was so worth peeling those little baby cherry tomatoes as the flavor without the tomato skin is such a surprisingly delicious difference. I also liked the infused oil. All of it, definitely worth a repeat.
If you would like to see how the others fared, click here and follow the links. Next week's recipe is Mango, Kiwi, and Coconut Custard Tart, page 254.