Spaghetti alla Checca

One stand at my local farmer's market has the most incredible yellow cherry tomatoes.  They are sweet and delicious and taste like summer.

I wanted a way to use these beauties in an uncooked tomato sauce, so I test drove an old recipe from Giada de Laurentiis' first cookbook- Checca Sauce, an uncooked mix of tomatoes, scallions, and fresh mozzarella. It came together in a few quick pulses in the food processor, and perfectly showcased the taste of summer.

Spaghetti all Checca, from Giada de Laurentiis
The original recipe calls for raw garlic; I hate the taste of that so I modified it slightly by cooking the garlic. 

1 box thin spaghetti
4 scallions, white and green parts, coarsely chopped
1 garlic clove
2 pints cherry tomatoes- use fresh, in-season tomatoes! No plastic packaged grocery store tomatoes here
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
2 tbsp grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup olive oil
4 oz fresh mozzarella, cubed

Saute the garlic clove in oil until lightly golden. Toss garlic clove and set oil aside to cool.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. When boiling, add lots of salt and your spaghetti.

In your food processor, pulse scallions, tomatoes, half of the basil, Parmesan, and reserved oil until tomatoes are coarsely chopped. Do not puree.

Drain pasta, reserving 1/4 cup pasta water. Top pasta with tomato mixture, adding pasta water if it looks a little dry. Toss with remaining basil leaves, salt, pepper, and fresh mozzarella. Serve immediately.