I should be jealous of Ed Giobbi. My wife turns to his cookbooks more often than to mine, and the guy isn't even a professional cook or writer. He's a highly successful artist. Cooking is his hobby.

One of Ed's claims to fame is that he invented the now well-known dish call Pasta Primavera. When Sirio Maccioni opened the first Le Cirque restaurant in 1976, he asked Ed if he knew of a recipe for pasta that would be a bit different and new. Ed boasted about a dish his grandmother had made, which consisted of room-temperature raw tomato pieces combined with hot pasta. Ed halved, seeded, then diced ripe tomatoes and mixed them with black pepper, extra-virgin olive oil, salt, shredded basil, and finely chopped onion and garlic. As soon as the pasta cooked, he drained it and tossed it with the tomato mixture. He served the dish immediately, with grated Parmesan cheese. It is one of my favorite meals in the summer when the vines in my garden sag under the weight of ripe tomatoes. The tomato salad is also great on top of crostini toasts.

Ingredients

Tomato Salad/Sauce:

• 1 pound ripe tomatoes (2 or 3 tomatoes)
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 cup shredded basil leaves

Pasta:

• Salt
• 8 cups water
• 1 pound penne or bow-tie pasta
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Directions