The missus has a new chef position, so it's up to me to pull dinner detail for a while. Awesome! I am pretty slow in the kitchen and tend to flavor rather complex dishes, so I need to build up an arsenal of quicker, easier meals. I figure it's hard to go wrong wit pasta, so here's a simple dish with a surprising amount of flavor. This dish will serve two and only takes 30 minutes to pull off.
Pasta with Oven Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic and Basil
Ingredients
8 ounces spaghetti
10 ounces cherry tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Oregano
1 tablespoon butter
Parmigiano-Reggiano
Small basil leaves
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. Set four quarts, salted water to boil and cook pasta to al dente. Reserve 6 tablespoons of the water.
3. Put foil on a baking sheet, spray with Pam and place tomatoes, garlic, oregano and 2 tablespoons oil on it. Cook until the tomatoes are just starting to burst, about 10 minutes. Be careful to not let the garlic burn, so you may want to place the sheet on a top rack.
4. In a saucepan, combine the 6 tablespoons pasta water with 2 tablespoons of water. Boil for a few minutes to reduce and emulsify. Remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk in 1 tablespoon of butter. Toss the sauce with the pasta and tomatoes/garlic.
5. Garnish with basil leaves - be generous - and use a microplane to grate Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!
Notes
About the Parmigiano-Reggiano - It's expensive, but I prefer to use the real deal.
