Pasta with Basil and a Balsamic Glaze

This is so turning into a default recipe box. How completely boring for everyone but me. Facebook's hijacked all my pithy nothing's. Photos would probably help. Or clever names for the food, but honestly, most of the names that I come up with have little to do with the food, and the names are as much to remind myself what's in the stuff as anything else. Still, that might be something to work on.... Oh well. In the meantime, here's another recipe for the collection.

This one is from The Weeknight Kitchen newsletter at The Splendid Table website. It's very fast and delicious, although I did get a serious post-carb craving for sweets afterwards. Then again, I get a craving for sweets post pretty most everything, so maybe it wasn't the carbs. The recipe calls for lots of shredded basil, which was delicious, but I'm thinking that next time I'm going to try it was mint instead. I love mint in most of the places people put basil, so I figure it's worth a try.

And so now without further ado, yet another recipe, this time for Pasta with Basil and a Balsamic Vinegar Glaze. What a creative name.

Ingredients:

- 1 lb. pasta (shapes, spaghetti or linguini)

- Extra-virgin olive oil

- 8 large cloves of garlic, sliced thin

- salt and pepper

- 1 - 1 1/2 cups grated or shredded parmesan

- 3 tbs. balsamic vinegar, mixed with 1 generous tsp. brown sugar (don't skip the brown sugar, it makes all the difference_

- 1 -1 1/3 tight-packed cups fresh basil leaves, torn

- 1/2 -2/3 cup coarsely chopped toasted almonds

* Have everything chopped and measured before you start - the recipe, once started, moves along quickly.

Process:

1. Cook pasta in rapidly boiling, salted water for amount 9 minutes, until the pasta is slightly resistant to the bite, but not raw. You want it just under al dente.

2. Save 1 cup of pasta cooking water and set aside. Then drain the pasta and set it aside too.

3. Put the pot back on the stove at med. heat and generously film the bottom with olive oil.

4. Put the sliced garlic in the olive oil along with salt to taste and a generous amount of pepper.

Stir and cook the garlic for about two minutes, until it's tender but not brown.

5. Add 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta cooking water to the pot. Heat at medium and then add the pasta and toss quickly so the noodles are blended with the garlic.

6. Toss in the vinegar mixture and cheese to coat the noodles.

7. Lastly, add the basil and toss until well blended and fragrant - about 30 seconds.

8. Scatter the pasta with the almonds and serve hot.