Pasta Salad
I love serving this with a huge handful of rocket on the top and a drizzle of olive oil and a splash of balsamic - my idea of a pasta salad. This is my happy place.

Tomatoes
I love cherry tomatoes for this as they are just so easy, you don’t even need to bother slicing them which I love. If you want to use bigger tomatoes, I would peel them and dice them and then continue with the recipe by adding to plentiful hot olive oil. This will be good but it won’t be AS good as the way I do it. Sun gold or yellow cherry tomatoes also work really well, they don’t have to be red, and I also think they look so pretty in the sauce.

Cheese
We all know cheese makes everything better and the parmesan in this is key. I have on occasion been known to stir through some mascarpone - this is also v good. Not necessary but delicious none the less. For my children they like it with cheddar - not as good as parmesan but a little less salty and also good.

Basil
Don’t leave the basil out, it just adds little pockets of flavour which works so well. You could also dollop on a little pesto at the end. Or serve with half a burrata oozing over the top with a little pesto and a few basil leaves and toasted pine nuts and hello! Is this seat taken?

Have friends coming over?
I would make the “sauce” ahead of time. Get it to the point where you add the pasta cooking water and then just leave it. When you’re ready to eat, get the pasta on to cook and finish the sauce with the pasta cooking water and carry on. So easy and such stress free entertaining.

Added extras
Only if I have them lying around I might add some toasted breadcrumbs for a bit of crunch. If I had friends coming over I might be inclined to add a little bot of garlicky breadcrumbs to the table so people could spoon over some crumbs if they wanted. But I have never once done this when cooking for myself, so don’t feel it needs it.