Weekend Doings: Pasta With Charred Grape Tomatoes

Sunday was a great day! I love the feeling at the end of the day when one feels that things got done. Sunday was one of those days. My husband and I got up early in the morning (well not too early, early for a Sunday) and drove to the home improvement store. We bought some sacks of compost and organic fertilizer for the vegetables. after we got home we worked in the garden for a while. It might not be some people's idea of fun, but we had a lot of fun.

Later in the day I made pasta with grape tomatoes. Our tomato plants are still you, so the tomatoes were from the market. But still they were pretty good. the recipe I got the inspiration from calls for slow roasted plum tomatoes. However, I only had grape tomatoes on hand and roasting the tomatoes takes some time (about 45 minutes), so to speed things up I opted to broil the tomatoes. It only took 5-8 minutes and they tasted great. Plus I got to use some of my fresh oregano.

Pasta With Charred Grape Tomatoes

Adapted from Everyday Food, April 2010

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 cups grape tomatoes
1/2 lb short pasta such a shells or elbow
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Basil and oregano leaves for garnish
Parmesan shavings for garnish

Method:

1. Place grape tomatoes on a baking sheet and broil on high for about 5-8 minutes or until the skins begin to look charred.

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta according to package directions. Drain the pasta and reserve 1 cup of pasta water. Meanwhile in skillet heat oil over medium high heat. Suttee garlic for 1-2 minutes until fragrant, then add the pepper flakes and continue to stir for another minute. Add broiled tomatoes and 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Season with salt and pepper and breakup the tomatoes with a spoon and cook for about 5 minutes to thicken the sauce.