I tried Ina Garten’s and Martha Stewart’s easiest pasta recipes. Both delivered quick dinners, but there was a clear winner.

To whip up Garten’s favorite summer pasta, you’ll need: 

• Angel hair pasta
• Parmesan cheese
• Cherry tomatoes 
• Minced garlic 
• Basil leaves
• Red pepper flakes 

Garten’s recipe also calls for “good” olive oil, which — as you’ll see — is a very important component to this dish.

I halved my cherry tomatoes, minced three cloves of garlic, and julienned nine basil leaves, per Garten’s recipe (which I halved for three servings instead of six). 

I then threw the ingredients into a bowl and seasoned them with half a teaspoon of salt, some red pepper flakes, and a few twists of freshly ground black pepper. 

While Garten’s dish has minimal prep, it gets most of its flavor from soaking the tomatoes in olive oil for four hours before serving. 

It may seem like a time-consuming step, but I easily whipped up the mix on my lunch break. I soaked everything in ⅓ cup of olive oil, tossed it together, then covered the bowl with plastic wrap and set it aside (it needs to stay at room temperature). 

The whole process took less than five minutes. As Garten would say, how easy is that? 

Garten’s summer garden pasta is made with angel hair, which cooks much faster than other types of pasta because it’s so thin. 

The “Barefoot Contessa” star even warns in her recipe to be extra careful when cooking the noodles because “it only takes two to three minutes!” 

The minute I took the plastic wrap off the bowl of tomatoes, I was hit with a deliciously crisp, fresh scent that reminded me of bruschetta. 

After tossing everything together, I added freshly grated Parmesan cheese and fresh basil leaves.

I couldn’t believe how much flavor had been injected into those cherry tomatoes. They were so rich and delicious, I started snacking on them before I took my first bite of the pasta. 

The angel hair noodles were also the perfect base for this dish, balancing out the richness of the tomatoes and olive oil with their fluffiness. It was a nice contrast in both taste and texture, keeping the pasta light without sacrificing flavor. 

Both Stewart and Garten use cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil, red pepper flakes, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. 

But Stewart opts for linguine instead of angel hair pasta for her dish, and she also adds an onion into the mix. 

I also only needed to chop up three ingredients for Stewart’s dish. First, I halved the tomatoes, then I thinly sliced my onion and a few cloves of garlic. 

Much like Garten’s dish, it only took me five minutes. 

All you have to do is toss all the ingredients into a pan. You don’t even boil the water first! 

I threw in the linguine, cherry tomatoes, onion, and garlic into the pan with 4 ½ cups of water. 

Then I added two basil leaves, 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, ½ teaspoon of red pepper flakes, 2 teaspoons of salt, and a few twists from my pepper grinder. 

After a few minutes had passed and the softened noodles had become fully submerged in the water, I felt almost tranquil as I delicately turned and flipped them with my tongs. 

Within minutes, my entire kitchen filled with the most inviting aroma.

Per Stewart’s recipe, I waited until the water had “nearly evaporated” before I turned off the stove. 

There was a hint of richness thanks to the olive oil and tomatoes, which had a lovely blistered texture, but there wasn’t much oomph to this pasta. 

I was able to get more flavor out of the noodles after adding a lot more pepper and crushed red pepper flakes, but the winner of this showdown was clear. 

Garten’s summer garden pasta is proof that, sometimes, one or two extra steps can make a world of difference.