Linguine with Raw Tomato Sauce

(from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything)

This is a great spin on everyday tomato sauce. It's great for our new Berkeley surroundings, where we have access to super-fresh produce - in this case, particularly Berkeley Bowl heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil from the garden (although I already killed the first basil plant and am on my second; a green thumb, I don't have!). 

This basically has all the usual components of tomato-basil sauce - tomatoes, garlic, basil - you just don't cook any of it. The garlic becomes more potent, and it's wonderfully fresh and light. The pasta warms the sauce up. It reminds us of the sauce at D'Amico and Sons in Minnesota, a favorite of Joef's when he was growing up.

So, it's quick, fresh, yummy:
2 cups roughly chopped fresh tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt to taste
2 cloves garlic, lightly smashed and then chopped
1/4 - 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 lb pasta
Parmesan cheese for serving

Start your water boiling and salt it. In a large bowl (with a broad, flat bottom, and ideally enough room to hold all the pasta), combine and mash the tomatoes, oil, salt/pepper, garlic, and half the basil. (I use a large, wooden muddler) Don't mash it so much that it becomes a puree - just break it down and combine the flavors a little. The sauce can sit for up to two hours like this (or you can use it right away).

After the pasta is cooked, ladle a little pasta water into the sauce to warm it up and thin it out a little. Bittman removes the garlic at this point (he just smashes it, doesn't chop it) - I think I left it in. Toss the pasta in the sauce, adjust the seasoning as needed, top with the rest of the basil, and serve with parmesan cheese.