Honey Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta
A summer delight of a pasta dish. Sweet juicy roasted tomatoes, shallots and flavour infused olive oil make the perfect 'sauce' over your favourite pasta.
Ingredients
- 3-4 cherry tomato vines alternately you can use a pint of cherry tomatoes, about 5-8 per person, depending on the size of tomato
- 8 large shallots peeled and halved
- 8 medium garlic cloves halved, skinned
- 1/4 cup or so of good olive oil
- 1 tsp hot chilli flakes or aleppo pepper
- 1 tsp dried basil or 2 tsp finely chopped fresh
- 1 tsp crushed dried rosemary or 2 tsp finely chopped fresh
- 1/2 tsp each kosher salt and cracked black pepper
- 2 or more tbsp wildflower or clover honey for drizzling (depending on how sweet you like things!
- pasta for 4 1/2 lb uncooked
- 1/2-3/4 cup soft feta, soft goat cheese, ricotta or fior di latte , or 300 grams
- 1 small handful of fresh basil for garnish loosely chopped
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400F
In a baking pan (not too big, but large enough so that you can spread out the vines) toss the shallots, garlic, olive oil, chilli flakes, and basil and rosemary.
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On top of these lay out your tomato vines (or loose tomatoes) Season with some salt and pepper. Drizzle some more olive oil over the tomatoes.
Drizzle honey over all of the above.
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Roast until the tomatoes are starting to burst but are still intact. There may be a slight browning to the skin. The shallots and garlic should be softened. The garlic skin may have started to burn, but the garlic inside will be fine. Check after 20 minutes, but it may take 25 minutes or a tad longer. That's alright, the kitchen will smell amazing!
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While the veggies are roasting, prepare and drain your pasta as per the pasta instructions.
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Spread out your pasta (either on individual plates, or onto a platter)
Crumble the cheese over the pasta.
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Spread the shallots and garlic evenly over the pasta. Take your vines and lay gently onto the pasta. Pour all the olive oil and seasonings over everything so that the pasta is also coated with some.
Serve.
Recipe Notes
This looks impressive. But be careful if serving the tomatoes on the vine. In the process of removing them to eat, they can burst, and splash!!
Maybe have a pair of scissors handy to trim each of the tomatoes off and place on the plates.
I've given options for the cheese. Just ensure that it is a soft cheese that will gently melt with the heat from the pasta and the olive oil. It's this creaminess that really makes the dish!