Garlicky tomato pasta

• small new potatoes↗8

  quartered, or a large baking potato peeled and cut into small chunks

• pasta↗200g g

  shells (about 2 large handfuls)

• medium tomatoes↗4

  the riper the better

• olive oil↗ tbsp

  good quality

• fat clove of garlic↗1

  finely chopped or crushed

• pinch of crushed chillies or chilli powder
• grated cheese

  whatever you have, to serve

Step-by-step instructions

1. 1

   Pour a boiled kettleful of water into a medium pan, salt the water and bring it back to the boil over a highish heat. Tip the potatoes into the water and boil for 5 minutes. Tip the pasta into the same water, give it a stir and continue to boil everything for about 10 minutes or until the pasta and potatoes feel soft when prodded with a fork.

2. 2

   While the pasta is cooking, chop the tomatoes into chunky pieces, then chop them a little bit more, as you would for a salsa. Scrape the tomatoes and their juice off the board into a bowl. Season generously with salt and pepper and mix in the olive oil, garlic and crushed chilli until it’s all amalgamated.

3. 3

   When the pasta and potatoes are cooked, toss them in the bowl with the tomato sauce until evenly coated. Divide the pasta between two bowls and serve with a sprinkling of grated cheese.