Cherry Tomato Pasta

This is a bit of a fancy one. Good for having guests over or if you’re feeling a bit boujee! It’s fairly easy to make, but does require 90 minutes of baking, so make sure you get this one started nice and early. If you don’t have a food processor, halve the amount of cherry tomatoes, and replace with a 50ml of tomato passata.

Ingredients

• 1kg cherry tomatoes (fresh or tinned) 

• 500g dried pasta of your choice (I like pappardelle for this dish) 

• Tbsp of dried oregano 

• 250ml olive oil 

• 100g capers 

• 150g ricotta 

• 1 bulb of garlic 

• Pinch of chilli flakes 

• Salt 

• Pepper 

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C. 

2. Place all the cherry tomatoes in a deep baking tray. Throw in the garlic bulb (you don’t need to take it out of its skin), chilli flakes, oregano, olive oil, salt and pepper. 

3. Place the tray in the oven for around 90 minutes, stopping every 20 minutes or so to give the tray a shake and make sure the tomatoes don’t burn.  

4. Once the tomatoes are cooked through, take them out and strain the oil into a separate bowl. Place the tomatoes into a large mixing bowl, big enough to mix in with the pasta.  

5. Use some of this oil to fry your capers.  

6. Set a large pot of water to the boil. Salt aggressively and once boiling, cook your pasta according to package instructions.  

7. Pulse half of your tomato mixture in a food processor. Re-add to the mixing bowl.  

8. Add your cooked pasta, along with half a cup of the salted pasta water and stir to combine.  

9. Add the fried capers and ricotta and serve.