Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta with Capers
One of the most perfectly wonderful dishes of summer; this Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta combines the best of summer bounty.
Today’s theme for the Food Network series and one of our last for #SensationalSides before we head into summer fare was to come up with a quick side dish.
Maybe the quickest would have been to take the basket of cherry tomatoes I had on the counter and chop them and season them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper but I was thinking a bit more might be expected for FN Dish!
So I took them a couple of steps further and made this quick and easy Pasta with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes that was quite simply devoured. As always take a peek below for more side dishes from the Food Network squad.
One of my favorite uses for tomatoes, especially when they are in abundance, is to make a tomato pie. I might have done that for today except I didn’t have any pre-made pie dough in the freezer and making a pie shell would have led this dish a bit too far away from quick and easy so I sort of punted.
I used a lot of the same ingredients for my pie but in lieu of a pie shell, I mixed the tomatoes with pasta and Parmesan cheese and it was perfect. Fresh, light and yet warm from the oven and a bit cheesy; it really was a simple and delicious dish that took barely any effort to bring to the table.
I don’t know about you but I hardly purchase tomatoes when they are not in season. Winter tomatoes are simply hard and flavorless so I suffer without and will use a good canned product before fresh. So I get excited as spring rolls around and tomato planting season gets underway.
I still shy away from most tomatoes at the market but have found that smaller varieties can be satisfying this time of year before the larger ones start to become available. And by available I mean in my garden or at the farmers market. Sadly…the grocery store NEVER has good tomatoes.
This was a particularly beautiful assortment with red, yellow and green cherry tomatoes with a type of baby heirloom thrown into the mix as well. A couple held up better than the others; some melted into sauce and some gave me the occasional toothy bite and that was perfect.
It’s an easy dish that takes but 5 minutes to get into the oven; combined with pasta that takes 10 minutes to cook and I call this easy enough for any meal! The ingredients include (full recipe at bottom of post):
- 4 cups cherry (or grape) tomatoes, halved
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 Tablespoon capers, rinsed and drained
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus extra for seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra for seasoning
- ½ cup Italian-style seasoned Panko bread crumbs
- 1 pound Ziti (or use macaroni if on hand)
- 1 ¼ cups (2 ½ ounces) Parmesan cheese, grated
! For Garnish
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Once the tomatoes are roasted and the pasta cooked, it’s as simple as combining everything together. It can be refrigerated but I much prefer it served warm or at room temperature.
Make sure you checkout these additional dishes from my friends at The Food Network. All tasty and quick to the table; perfect for families today!
Feed Me Phoebe: 5-Ingredient Za’atar Beet Toasts
Devour: Beat the Clock with Easy, Under-15-Minute Side Dishes
Healthy Eats: 7 of the Quickest — and Healthiest — Side Dishes Ever
Napa Farmhouse 1885: Five Fast & Fantastic Spring Side Dishes
TasteBook: Asparagus Ribbons with Lemon Juice and Shaved Parmesan
The Wimpy Vegetarian: Cilantro-Lime Cauliflower Rice (with Coconut)
FN Dish: Counting Down the 5 Quickest Spring Side Dishes Ever
PIN IT! ‘Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta’
Pasta with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 4 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 Tablespoon capers rinsed and drained
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil plus extra for drizzling
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt plus extra for seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper plus extra for seasoning
- ½ cup Italian-style seasoned Panko bread crumbs
- 1 pound Ziti or use macaroni if on hand
- 1 ¼ cups 2 1/2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated
For Garnish:
- ¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter an 8 by 8-inch glass baking dish. Set aside.
- Combine the tomatoes, garlic, capers, olive oil, salt and pepper in the baking dish and toss to coat. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the tomato mixture. Drizzle the top with olive oil and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until the top is golden. Cool for 5 minutes.
- While the tomatoes are roasting, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and reserve 1 cup of the pasta water.
- Put the pasta in a large serving bowl and spoon the tomato mixture onto the pasta; add the cheese and toss well. Use the pasta water to thin out the sauce if necessary.
- Drizzle with additional olive oil and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve with the chopped parsley as garnish
When you walk down the pasta aisle in the market how do you choose which pasta to buy and which to use for what purpose? There are flat pastas, round pastas, hollow pastas and twisted pastas. There is pasta that is made to look like rice (Italian orzo) and pasta that resembles gnocchi (potato dumplings). There are shells and tubes and then there is pasta that is made into shapes to fit the season.
For me sometimes it’s as much the shape that I like as it is the type of pasta and I most definitely use angel hair the most because it cooks so quickly but there really are sort of rules and I think this article from Bon Appetit is useful.
https://www.bonappetit.com/story/which-pasta-shapes-to-use-when
What a sumptuous recipes??? I think i have found something special to treat with my kids this coming weekend, thanks for sharing, brilliant post.
Love roasting tomatoes! Great way to intensify flavor when they’re not fully ripe. This is a great dish. Pie would have been fun, but pasta is so easy. Thanks!