Upgrade the Classic Capellini Pomodoro with Shiso

Pomodoro is the perfect sauce for summer, highlighting the seasons bounty of ripe tomatoes and herbs. When paired with capellini, the dish comes together in a matter of minutes, keeping your kitchen from turning into a Turkish steambath. As much as I love this simple pasta, there's only so many times you can eat the basic combo before it starts to get old. That's why I like mixing it up with variations such as this one.

Most of you are probably familiar with green shiso as the leaf that's used to garnish plates of sushi. It's a member of the Perilla genus, which is in the same family as mint and basil. While shiso has a unique flavor that's tough to describe, it's like a cross between mint and basil, along with more floral notes. It's available in Japanese grocery stores, but if you don't have one near you, the seeds are available online and it grows like a weed in most climates.

The other newcomer to this classic pasta is one you may not have heard about. Shio kombu, which literally means "salted kelp," is exactly what it sounds like kelp that's been shredded and dried with salt. With a meaty flavor and an insane concentration of umami, a few strands of shio kombu would make boot leather taste good. Added to the pasta it works in tandem with the amino acids in the tomatoes, producing a sweet and mind-blowingly savory sauce that tastes like you've put a lot more work into it than the few minutes it takes to make. Shio kombu should be available at any Japanese grocery store, but you can also get it online here, here and here.

Because capellini is so thin, the difference between crunchy and mushy is a matter of seconds, which is why I prefer to undercook it. That way you can finish it off in the sauce, using reserved pasta-cooking liquid to keep the noodles from clumping.