Pasta with Baked Cherry Tomatoes

Name: Pasta with Baked Cherry Tomatoes
Yield: serves 6
Ingredients: 3 pints cherry tomatoes, halved; 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil; 1/3 cup fine dry bread crumbs; 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for the pasta pot; 1/4 teaspoon peperoncino flakes, or to taste; 1 pound spaghetti, gemelli, or penne; 10 plump garlic cloves, peeled and sliced; 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley; 1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, shredded; 1/2 cup freshly grated pecorino (or half pecorino and half Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano), plus more for passing; 4 ounces ricotta or ricotta salata; A large, rimmed sheet pan lined with parchment paper; a large pot, 8-quart capacity, for cooking the pasta; a heavy-bottomed skillet or sauté pan, 12-inch diameter or larger

December 9, 2011

The deep flavor and delightfully varied textures of this pasta dressing develop in the oven, where you bake the cherry tomatoes coated with bread crumbs just before you toss them with pasta. Roasting them this way intensifies their flavor, and the bread crumbs become crunchy. It is a lovely dish to make when sweet cherry tomatoes are in season, but it is also good with the lesser cherry-tomato varieties you get in winter; these can be used successfully here because of the concentration of taste and texture during baking. This dressing is suitable for almost any pasta, but I particularly like it with spaghetti, gemelli, or penne. Because the tomatoes are at their best as soon as they come out of the oven, the dressing and pasta should be cooked simultaneously, and I have written the recipe to ensure that you will have your pasta and baked tomatoes ready for each other at the same time.

Recipe notes

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