Easiest Pasta Recipe Ever: ecoTrain Cooking on A Budget Competition

_{Artwork and gif are from, and edited through Canva.}
Four kilos of tomatoes. Imagine how many that is. That's how many tomatoes my sister and I ordered to support her friend, who decided to plant tomatoes in one of their empty lots a few months ago. Four kilos of local and organic tomatoes! I guess we both got excited to help her friend too much...we didn't have a plan on what we'll do with that many tomatoes!

A few days passed. The tomatoes were getting riper. Then just one day, my sister got hungry and decided to experiment in the kitchen. I was busy with my kids then, so I didn't realize that she was already doing magic with the tomatoes we bought. After a few minutes, she asked me to taste what she cooked...it was flavorful! To think she only used a few ingredients to make that pasta recipe she calls Pasta ala Tep. That's her nickname, Tep. I told her about this contest, and being the competitive person that she is, she agreed for me to share her recipe.

Ingredients:

• 10 medium sized tomatoes
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 white onion
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp pink himalayan salt
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper
• 400g pasta of your choice

Procedure:

1. Cook the pasta based on the instructions on the packet.
   
2. Chop the onion, garlic, and tomatoes as shown above.
   
3. Heat a sauce pan. Put the butter. Sautee garlic and onion for a couple of minutes.
   
   _{Note: If you have a blender/food processor, you can use it for the tomatoes to be cooked faster. My sister prefers slow cooking it, though.}
4. Add tomatoes and mash it as it's being cooked. Also add a little bit of water to help it get cooked easily.
   
5. Add the olive oil.
   
6. Add the pink Himalayan salt.
   
7. Add the ground pepper.
   
8. Add the cooked pasta. Mix it a bit then turn off the stove.
   
9. Plate and serve!

I can't believe how tasty it was, even if it was just pasta and tomatoes, basically. My kids couldn't get enough of it, too! We wanted to use vegan butter, but we didn't have some at the moment. So we just used regular butter. I'm so happy on how it turned out! I will definitely cook it myself using vegan butter next time. And that's our entry for the ecoTrain Cooking on A Budget Competition Week 2. Do you have any suggestions on how else we can make this dish better? Let me know in the comments below! Thank you for taking the time to checkout my sister's recipe. Until my next story!

_{Note: All pictures were taken by me using my phone's camera.}