Vegtastic Voyage

More pasta? Yes, more pasta. Why? Because I rather like pasta. What’s not to like? You throw some vegetables on it and call it dinner. 

Our sometimes-super weather lately (where but in Portland can you get a tan and be beaten down by hail in the same day?) has had me looking at lighter, simpler pasta dishes—ones you don’t pat your belly after eating, saying “Ooph, I got a belly fulla pasta,” as I have been known to do, because if it’s good I’ll just keep eating it. Also, basil has been appearing around town, and I try to ride that basil train as long as I possibly can.

So tonight’s pasta (for 2) is:
•½ pound cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
•a full head of garlic
•as much basil as you can handle
•couple of tablespoons olive oil
•kosher salt and crushed red pepper

I’m sure there are tons of recipes out there, but I winged it, kept it simple, and got by just fine. I spread a bit of olive oil in a baking pan and laid the tomatoes cut-side down in a single layer, along with the peeled garlic (bigger cloves cut in half). Hit it all with a little salt and red pepper. About a half hour in a 450° oven had the flavors dancing together in a manner that wouldn’t have been tolerated at a 1950s Catholic school mixer (at least in the movies—I was neither in Catholic school nor alive in the 1950s to verify the legitimacy of this image I’ve laid out before you, and for that I apologize). Toss it with your pasta, basil, and a little more oil or Earth Balance so the pasta doesn’t get gummy, then close your eyes and pretend it’s summer.