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Interested in a simple spaghetti dish with fresh, chopped tomatoes, crushed garlic and herbs? I enjoy spaghetti and typically make a thick, sweet sauce using tomato paste, diced tomatoes, brown sugar and the usual spices.

However, I wanted a thinner sauce without the sugar and paste. And instead of using tomato sauce, I opted instead for just diced tomatoes.

If you canned tomatoes from your garden during the summer, those will add a hearty flavor to the sauce, but freshly diced tomatoes or canned ones from the grocery store or farmers market will work, too.

Here’s what you’ll need for the dish:

1 pound of ground beef
¼ teaspoon of rosemary
¼ teaspoon of thyme
1/8 teaspoon of crushed oregano
Several cloves of garlic
¼ teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of pepper
1 tablespoon of butter
¼ cup of chopped onion
2 cups of peeled and chopped tomatoes (about 2 large tomatoes or 1 15-ounce can of diced tomatoes) with their juices
Thin spaghetti noodles (for four servings)

In a frying pan, brown the ground beef on medium-low heat, adding the salt and pepper and chopped onions.

While the ground beef browns, fill a sauce pan with water and bring to a rolling boil. If you’re using fresh tomatoes, score or slice and X at the top of the tomatoes and drop into the boiling water for about one minute.

Remove the tomatoes (The tomatoes will be somewhat hot at this point, so don’t burn yourself.), and from the scored tops, peel the skin from the tomatoes. Then cube the tomatoes and place in a bowl, keeping the juices.

In another pot, cook the spaghetti according to the package directions.

Once browned, drain the fat from the ground beef and onions. Then, add the tomatoes along with their juices and herbs, allowing the sauce to cook on medium low until the noodles are ready.

When the pasta has cooked, drain the water and add butter to it. Allow the butter to melt, stirring it around the pasta.

Now, you’re ready. Place a serving of pasta on a plate with meat sauce on top. Then, add a crushed clove of garlic on top of each serving, unless, of course, you don’t like garlic. Sprinkle some freshly grated Parmesan cheese on the spaghetti.

That’s all you need. I found this pasta dish tasty with a pleasing flavor.

     – Bobbie Whitehead