Grape tomatoes are already delicious little flavor bombs, and roasting them is the perfect method to coax even more flavor from them! Add in some roasted garlic, fresh basil and parmesan reggiano and you have the makings for a perfect pasta dinner that can be ready in mere minutes.
Place the tomatoes and whole garlic cloves on a rimmed baking sheet, toss with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with a liberal amount of kosher salt and roast for about 15-20 minutes.
Roasted tomatoes will look deflated, wrinkled and charred, none of which sounds very appealing! But trust me, these shriveled up gems will be delicious as the flavor has been concentrated and intensified! The garlic should darken a bit and become mellow in flavor with a soft and spreadable texture. At this point, you could just stop if you want and slather this roasted goodness on some crusty bread and you would be in heaven! But we’re making pasta! So dump that mixture into a large skillet and ladle in some of the salty starchy pasta water once your cooking pasta is well on its’s way to al dente. (Obviously make sure it is gluten free if that is important or necessary for you. Thankfully there are so many great options to chose from these days.) Bring the sauce to a simmer, add the drained pasta and any additional pasta water as needed to keep the pasta from drying out.
Once everything is well combined, remove the skillet from the heat and add the grated parmesan. Sprinkle with torn basil pieces (or if there is no fresh basil in your kitchen, just sprinkle on some dried basil, 2 teaspoons should taste good) and serve!
Roasted Grape Tomato Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 pound grape tomatoes
- 10-12 cloves garlic
- 2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup basil leaves (or more to taste), torn
- 1 pound spaghetti, angel hair, bucatini or pasta of choice
- 1 cup grated parmesan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Scatter tomatoes and garlic cloves on a rimmed baking sheet. Pour extra virgin olive oil over mixture, and then using hands toss mixture to evenly coat the tomatoes and garlic with oil. Sprinkle with salt.
- Place pan in oven and roast for about 15-20 minutes. The tomatoes should become wrinkly and charred, while the garlic cloves soften and become spreadable.
- While tomatoes are roasting heat water for pasta being sure to salt it, begin cooking pasta just before tomatoes come out of the oven.
- Scoop roasted tomatoes and garlic into a large skillet. I like to mash the garlic cloves so they just kind of melt into the sauce. As the pasta is cooking ladle some of the salty starchy pasta water (1/2-1 cup) onto the tomatoes and garlic, this mixture will create the sauce. Bring to a simmer over med high heat.
- When pasta is cooked, use a spider to transfer pasta to the skillet. Alternatively, drain the pasta (reserving a cup or so of the pasta water) and place pasta in skillet.
- Toss pasta with roasted tomatoes and garlic over low heat, adding pasta water as necessary. When thoroughly mixed together remove from heat.
- Stir in grated parmesan, top with basil and serve!