Fans are calling this “a favorite recipe of all time.”

Key Points

• Ina Garten’s Summer Garden Pasta highlights fresh, in-season tomatoes and herbs.


• This customizable recipe uses just five main ingredients and is ready in under 30 minutes.


• Swap garlic for garlic-infused olive oil or add summer veggies for a gut-friendly, tasty twist.

From strawberry tarts to watermelon mojitos, Ina Garten serves up the sweetest summer recipes on her Instagram. And when she added this savory Summer Garden Pasta to the mix, we wanted to re-create it ASAP.

Garten calls this dish “another fabulous, surprisingly simple summer recipe” that she loves. It’s an iteration of a pasta developed by her late friend Jean Halberstam, and stars in-season tomatoes and fresh herbs.

Ready to learn how to prepare this cheesy main? It’s so simple! And this easily customizable dinner only takes five ingredients—alongside pantry staples—to make.

These are the ingredients you will need for this delicious dish:

• 4 pints cherry tomatoes, halved


• 2 tablespoons minced garlic (6 cloves)


• 18 large basil leaves, julienned, plus extra for serving


• 1 pound dried angel hair pasta


• 1½ cups grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving.

You will also need “good olive oil,” kosher salt, ground black pepper and crushed red pepper flakes to taste.

First, combine all of your cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil (leave a few leaves on the side for plating later), ½ cup of olive oil, a dash of red pepper flakes, a teaspoon of salt and ground black pepper in a large bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set the mixture to the side on a counter or table for about 4 hours to marinate. This is easy to mix up in the afternoon so you have everything ready for when you’re serving.

Once it’s time to start making dinner, bring a large pot of water to a boil for your pasta. Of course she salts the water before adding the pasta, and Garten also recommends adding a splash of olive oil for more flavor. Add in your angel hair pasta and cook until al dente. Because the pasta is so thin, it will cook quickly and only take 2 or 3 minutes for it to be done. Once strained, add your angel hair to the bowl with the marinated cherry tomatoes and toss everything together. Mix in your Parmesan cheese and the remainder of the fresh basil leaves. With everything combined, it’s ready to serve—just include some more grated cheese on top of each plate! It should make about 6 servings.

If garlic tends to do a number on your gut—which is common if you have IBS—you could skip the garlic and use garlic-infused olive oil instead. It doesn’t have the same effects on the gut as garlic does, and you’ll still get plenty of real garlic flavor.

We’re all for cheesy pasta, and this one uses summer flavors for the ultimate bite. Fans are calling this recipe “a favorite recipe of all time” and “absolutely amazing.” For a fun twist on Garten’s recipe, you could swap out the angel hair for penne, add other summer veggies, like zucchini and yellow squash, and toss in some mozzarella pearls.