RECIPEBLOGGING: Some other bloggers are always posting recipes. Here’s one that I like because it’s quick, and good. It’s sort of a default option around here in the winter:

Pasta with Tomato, Basil and Chevre sauce

1 lb. pasta, any kind; 1 or 2 large ripe tomatoes; 1/4 cup (good) extra-virgin olive oil; fresh basil leaves (dried will work, but it’s not as good); 2 cloves garlic, minced (dried will work, but it’s not as good); 4-5 ounces fresh chevre cheese; sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.

Put the pasta in to boil (I told you this was quick). Then chop the tomatoes into small bits. Combine in the bowl with the other ingredients. Use lots of pepper. The chevre cheese will melt and combine with the ingredients into a wonderful creamy sauce when you add the hot, drained pasta to the bowl. Just toss it a bit and serve. You can substitute or add a lot of ingredients — I often add some crumbled Feta, for example, and you can use mushrooms or peppers in place of the tomatoes — and it’ll still come out good. The chevre and the basil are the key.

This is from a great cook book called While The Pasta Cooks, which is full of quick and easy pasta recipes that are awfully good. I’ve changed their recipe just a bit, but it works fine the way they have it, too.

Coming soon: my recipe for Thanksgiving Leg of Lamb.

UPDATE: Where do I get ripe tomatoes in winter, someone asks. At the store! The Fresh Market gets ’em flown in from Chile, I think. The beauty of globalization. . . .