The market often has grape tomatoes on sale, and this week I was fortunate to find that I could get 3 pints for only $5. I had plans for these tomatoes, you see. Roasty, sweet, delicious plans.
This tomato sauce is about as easy as you can get. Toss those sweet babies with a bit of oil and other things, them let your oven do all the work while you boil some pasta.Once your tomatoes have roasted and split open, toss them with the finished pasta and some big handfuls of greens and parmesan. What's easier than that? You'll notice that I mention spinach and arugula-awhile ago I discovered that Dole makes a spinach and arugula mix, which has become my new favorite. Don't have it available? That's okay, just use spinach.
I used Catelli Ancient Grains pasta for this dish, and it was amazing. The pasta held the sauce really well, and added a lot of flavour. I highly recommend you try it!
Ingredients:
Roasted Tomatoes:
2 pints grape tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, slivered into chips
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
coarse salt and cracked black pepper
1 tbsp fresh chopped thyme
200 grams of Catelli Ancient Grains spaghettini
2 large handfuls of spinach or a mix of spinach/arugula, torn roughly
3/4 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
fresh cracked pepper
1. Pre-heat oven to 325 F.
2. In a large bowl, toss the grape tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, thyme, salt and pepper together. Spread them into a 9x13 inch non reactive baking dish and place it in the oven.
3. Bake the tomatoes for about an hour, stirring occasionally while they break down and release their juices. Near the end, start cooking the pasta.
4. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the pasta. Cook about 7-9 minutes, whichever is your preference. Drain the pasta and toss in a large bowl with the cherry tomatoes, big handfuls of torn spinach and arugula, and cheese. Add cracked pepper and salt to taste. Mound on plates and add more cheese at the table.
Makes 4 servings.
