• Start a large pot of water over high heat. Add a generous amount of salt to the boiling water, 1-2 tablespoons should do it. Cook the spaghetti to package directions for al dente.

While the spaghetti cooks

• Heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. When the olive oil is hot, but nowhere near smoking, add the tomatoes, garlic, salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper (if using). Stir to coat the ingredients.
• Cook the garlic and tomatoes for 2-3 minutes until the garlic softens and some of tomatoes start to split. stir frequently, almost constantly to make sure the garlic does not burn. Be careful when the tomatoes split, they could squirt hot liquid.
• Take the skillet off the heat and place it on a cold burner or trivet so that the residual heat on the burner doesn’t keep cooking the garlic and burn it.
• When the pasta is al dente, reserve at least one cup of the cooking water, then drain it well. You can use the cooking water to make the noodles slippery if they get sticky and start to dry out while you finish everything up.
• Add the pasta to the garlic oil and tomatoes. Toss well to make sure it’s completely coated with the oil.
• Taste the pasta, add salt if needed. As a reference we added ¼ teaspoon to ours. Toss well.
• Right before serving the pasta, cut the basil into ribbons. Serve the spaghetti with the tomatoes and top with about a tablespoon of the basil ribbons. Garnish with parmesan cheese and extra crushed red pepper, if desired.