Easy Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta

EASY TOMATO AND GOAT CHEESE PASTA

This recipe is great for tomato season.  Instead of buying spaghetti sauce, why not make your sauce from whole tomatoes?  I promise you, this recipe is really easy, but you do need about an hour for the tomatoes and garlic to roast in the oven.  You can also use cherry or grape tomatoes instead and adjust time to about 45 minutes.  If your tomatoes aren't the best or aren't quite ripe, you may want to sprinkle a little (organic) sugar on the tomatoes to cut the acidity.

Adjust rack to middle and set oven at 375 degrees.
Put about 5 or 6 whole tomatoes (or 3 cups cherry/grape tomatoes) in a casserole dish.
Drizzle with 3 tablespoons olive oil and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper.

Chop off about 1/2 inch of the pointy part of a whole head of garlic.  Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil on cut end of head and put in a ramekin (or other small oven-proof bowl).  Cover ramekin with foil.


Place both the garlic and the tomatoes in the oven and bake for 55 minutes (45 minutes or less for cherry/grape tomatoes, but leave garlic in for the entire 55 minutes).

After the tomatoes and garlic are roasted, cook  10 ounces of whole wheat pasta of your choice (I like bite-sized pasta for this dish, like rotini) and cook per directions on package.  Meanwhile, after garlic is cooled enough to handle, squeeze garlic into casserole dish with tomatoes.


Smash garlic and tomatoes together with potato masher until well mixed.

After pasta is cooked and drained, combine pasta with tomato mixture.  Dot with 4 - 6 ounces of goat cheese (or to taste - we like more).  Chiffonade about 5 basil leaves to put on top of the pasta.

The great thing about this dish is that as the goat cheese melts, your sauce becomes this beautiful creamy mixture that sticks nicely to the pasta.  Goes well with a nice crisp salad and a dry wine.  Buon appetito!