A(nother) fast pasta sauce

Around this time of year, I would probably murder for a decent tomato. The sun is shining, the cherry blossom is out, I've finally had my summer coat dry cleaned so that I can wear it again, but still I cannot get hold of a tomato that tastes like a tomato.

I made this tonight in a desperate attempt to springtime-up a quick dinner of stuffed pasta. Stuffed pasta, I've found, is an even better quick dinner than normal (dry) pasta, because it takes three minutes to cook instead of nine. That's an extra six minutes I could be, for example, facebooking with. On the downside, that leaves you three minutes to perform the following kitchen tasks (I suggest you start when you put the water on to boil):

• Roughly chop two tomatoes
• Mix with 1 tbs of the best olive oil you have, 1 tbs of red wine vinegar, and a generous amount of salt and pepper
• Peel and crush a small clove of garlic
• Roughly chop a small handful of basil
• Grate a small handful of parmesan
• Mix all of the above together.

The vinegar is, I believe, what makes winter tomatoes palatable in their raw form: it boosts the flavour and encourages the juices. Balsamic would probably work even better, and I suspect if you could organise yourself sufficiently to leave the tomatoes to marinate in the oil, vinegar, seasoning, and garlic overnight, you might even persuade yourself that it was summer.