Tomato season is upon us! If you are somebody that frequents in the tube of you (YouTube) and watch a lot of cooking videos (like me) you will see that your feed might be filling up with a LOT of tomato videos. It’s tomato season. Which, I actually had to look up. If you did not know, tomato season runs from May to October, which means we are right (somewhat) in the middle of it. Which means ALL OF THE TOMATOES.

I never had really ~good~ experiences with tomatoes. All of the tomatoes I tried were super acid and not necessarily pleasant. I also “had” tomatoes in burgers, and I never got hooked to it. I know. I am weird. But, those burgers also had iceberg lettuce, so you know.

I wanted to originally prepare this dish with some cherry tomatoes, but they did not look so good in the grocery store this week. I TRULY wanted to go to the farmers market, but I am hopeful that I can go this next Saturday. We’ll see. This recipe is Super simple, it uses ingredients that you already have in your home (I personally only needed the tomatoes and some fresh basil), and it can be ready to eat in about 45 minutes. Why 45? Because we will “take the time” to roast the tomatoes in the oven. That’s it. At the end of the day, this is what it should look like!

A light pasta dish that is perfect foe these summer days, especially now that school is starting up again. You could make this for for #meatlessMondays or for a #DineInSaturday!

Oven: 400 degrees

Hardware:

• Food processor
• Glass baking sheet
• Deep dish pan
• Dutch oven for boiling the pasta

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

• 3 tomatoes (if you have cherry tomatoes the sauce will be slightly sweeter)
• Long pasta (I settled for some fettuccine, but any will do)
• Mexican Oregano (optional)
• Fresh basil
• Parmesan or Pecorino Romano
• Lemon (optional, but it brightens the dish up)
• 3 cloves of garlic (I love garlic so I added 5-6)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Crushed red pepper flakes (to taste)
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Optional (If you want a really deep tomato flavor,you COULD add some tomato paste to it (about 2-3 tablespoons), but I feel that it would make the dish a little bit heavy. I didn’t go for it in THIS dish, but I have in the past in a variation of the dish.

How to make it:

• These 3 lovelies will be cut straight through the middle, will be slightly drowned (about 1/3 or 1/4 cup of Olive Oil), the seasoned with salt and pepper, and add garlic. I left the garlic cloves cut in half. They will be slightly sweet and delicious and will mellow out in the hot jacuzzi that it is this tomato oil amazingness.
  

• Place in the oven for 30 minutes. The salt will help the juice of the tomato come out and just be AWESOME.
• At the 15 minute mark, boil your water. Season well with salt , add the pasta.

Time it out so that the pasta should be done by the time you place the tomatoes in the pan.

• Once the tomatoes are done roasting, You can smash the with a potato masher, but I wanted to more liquid sauce with some chucks. I placed them in the food processor and pulsed it a couple of times. Enough that you can have small chucks of tomato.
  
• I had a preheated deep pan (medium to medium high) add the tomato mix. Try that no tomato missed the pan and into the stove (like the picture above) Let the tomato mix slightly reduces.
• Add the pasta.
  
• This is the time to mix everything vigorously. Add the basil, Mexican oregano, and if you like a little bit of lemon zest.
• Let the pasta absorb all of that good sauce (about 2 minutes).
• Add parmesan or pecorino. Mix.
• SERVE!

I added some parsley on top. Some more parmesan (that melted deliciously). Try not to stuff your face. I believe in you. I believe that you will fail. 😀 (I’m such a good person, right!?)

This dish is great reheated as well. You might need to add some water or stock to it to give it some more saucy goodness, but you will still devour it in minutes.

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