The Dinner Table: Whole Wheat Pasta with Heirloom Tomatoes & Fresh Herbs

One of my favorite things to do in the summer besides going to the beach is visiting the Union Square Market on a Saturday morning.  Going early allows you to really miss the crowds of people that filter through and stare in awe at the beautiful produce (who knew fresh vegetables and fruit could be so pretty?). On this particular day I wanted to purchase some heirloom tomatoes, each summer I look forward to these multicolored tomatoes that pack so much flavor and can stand-out in any dish.  In my opinion, tomatoes work best with fresh mozzarella or pasta, so I decided to make the latter and incorporate some fresh herbs from my herb garden.  This dinner could not be any easier and involves very little prep work, but the results are so fresh and delicious, you won't be disappointed 

Directions: You can easily adjust this dinner for how many people that you are serving.  In my case I was serving only two. I finely diced five different sized tomatoes and set them aside, in the meantime I boiled water enough for two portions of whole wheat pasta.  Once the pasta was cooked and drained I added it to the diced tomatoes.  I finished the pasta off by chopping up various fresh herbs, I incorporated thyme, basil, and parsley. I mixed the herbs into the pasta and finished it off with a scoop of fresh ricotta, but parmesan reggiano would also work very well too, and finally I drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and presto, dinner is served!

*All photographs by Alison