fresh avocado and tomato cold spaghetti

Avocado and cold spaghetti? Pretty weird, huh? I guess this qualifies as a summer pasta, served cold to beat the heat. We did this once and liked it, but somehow never got around to a second trial for a long time, just out of shear laziness. It comes from Julia della Croce's pasta book which we snagged in a Pier One impulse buy. An accompanying story was never recorded, so that this recipe was later almost yanked from the collection in 2002 except that 1993 was a prolific year and the following 9 recipe files and table of contents listing would have had to have been edited to change the consecutive numbering if removed.

Adding an after-the-fact note seemed like the path of least resistance. We love avocado's and will try it again this summer. Promise. Meanwhile, this is how it goes.

ingredients

3/4 lb spaghetti

1 lb sweet vine ripe tomatoes, or cherry tomatoes

1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced

a large garlic clove, minced finely with a knife

1/3 c extra virgin olive oil

1/2 t salt or to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

instructions

1. Boil the pasta water and dump in the pasta and some salt when ready.
2. Prepare the tomatoes, chopping into small pieces unless cherry tomatoes are used, in which case they can be halved.
3. Put the tomatoes in a large serving bowl with the avocado and rest of the ingredients.
4. When the pasta is cooked al dente, drain and while dripping wet, transfer to the bowl and toss with the sauce.
5. If the pasta is too dry, add a little more olive oil and re-toss.

notes

1. The original recipe called for blanching peeling and seeding the tomatoes, an activity we refuse to do. It also noted an optional additive: 1 T of drained capers.
2. We probably refrigerated the sauce while waiting for the pasta.