In case you haven’t noticed we eat A LOT of pasta around here. Just about every week I make some kind of sauce and freeze it for easy weeknight meals. Some nights all I can handle is boiling some water for pasta and microwaving some freezer sauce. Besides being easy, we also just love pasta!
This pasta is super easy to make. Make the pesto in advance and freeze it. The night before you want to serve this, take the pesto out of the freezer. Or, even easier, buy already prepared pesto. Once you get home all you have to do is roast the tomatoes, cook some pasta, and heat the pesto. Then combine everything with some ricotta cheese. Even on the most hectic weeknight I can handle that. Not only is this pasta dish easy, it tastes great too. I love the sweetness from the tomatoes and the freshness from the basil. Make sure that you reserve some pasta water though or it will be dry. Dry pasta = gross.
Here is what you'll need
Add the balsamic vinegar to the tomatoes
And the olive oil
And the sugar
And the salt and pepper
Put the tomatoes on a pan and in the oven
If your using alread prepared pesto skip this process. Otherwise put the basil in the food processor.
Add the cheese
And pine nuts
And lemon juice
Salt and pepper
Pulse and gradually add the olive oil
Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary
Put the pesto in a bowl
Your tomatoes should be ready by now
Add the pesto and the reserved pasta water to the spaghetti
Add the tomatoes next
Top with ricotta cheese and you.are.done!
Ingredients
1 pint cherry tomatoes
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 pound spaghetti
1 cup of ricotta cheese, crumbled
Pesto, for the pesto we used this recipe from Giada De Laurentiis (you could also used already prepared pesto).
2 cups pasta water
Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Toss the cherry tomatoes with the balsamic vinegar, oil, sugar, salt and pepper and transfer to a pan lined with foil. Roast for 15-20 minutes until the tomatoes are blistered and the skin starts coming loose. Keep watching the tomatoes because the oven will be very hot and you don’t want them to burn. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in plenty of salted water until al dente. Reserve 2 cups of pasta water. Drain and combine with the tomatoes (and all their pan juices), reserved pasta water and pesto. Crumble the ricotta cheese over the top. Serve with extra ricotta cheese and basil pesto.
Source: Adapted from Simply Delicious
