Garlic + Herb Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta

It is that time of the year, when tomatoes are starting to turn red, and come in like crazy! That is my case at least, and I knew I had to think of some delicious recipes to use the tomatoes with. Then the idea came to me… Garlic + Herb Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta. Yes!!

I don’t know about you, but I am a worshiper when it comes to Italian food. Everything about it I love. The smell, the taste, the authentictiy. But most importantly, the taste.

I love going out to eat at a good authentic Italian restaurant. The smells of the bread, garlic, olive oil, wine, tomato sauce, herbs combined into one scent…its just amazing, and has this comfort feeling.

Now, I must say that this recipe I am about to share with you made our home smell like a cute little Italian bistro. No lie. My husband walked into the house while the tomatoes were roasting and said “Wow, it smells like an Italian restaurant in here!”. Don’t believe me? Make it and see for yourself!

I have an abundance of fresh herbs in my garden. So I had to include them into the recipe. What’s a good Italian dish without herbs??

So for this recipe you will need either garden fresh herbs and cherry tomatoes, or you can just get some at your local grocery store. It will still taste amazing!

Unfortunately the garlic that I used isn’t from my garden. But someday I would love to grow my own!

First you want to chop up your tomatoes in half, and dice up your garlic.

I don’t know about you, but I used to hate using fresh garlic cloves in recipes only because peeling and dicing up fresh garlic can be a pain! Its sticky, and the skin doesn’t come off easily. I always used the jarred garlic thats already diced up for you. It was just easier. I have come to learn that using the jarred garlic just isn’t the same as using fresh garlic cloves.

I did some research because I knew there had to be an easier way to peel fresh garlic…and there is!

So what you want to do is pull of the individual garlic cloves off of the garlic bulb. You can either use a knife if you feel comfortable enough, or a glass cup. If using a knife, make sure it is a wide knife, and not a butter knife. Place the knife down on flat side against the garlic clove, and give it a little pound with your palm, and that should loosen the skin of the garlic clove enough for you to get it out easily.

If using a glass cup, place the bottom of the glass cup on top of garlic clove, and give it a little smash (don’t break the glass) you don’t need to hit it too hard. That should puncture the garlics skin just enough for you to get it out easily! And there you go. Now hopefully you will start to use fresh garlic instead of the easy, not so fresh, jarred garlic!

You can either chop it up with a knife, or use a garlic press.

Now you want to chop up your fresh herbs.

Add your tomatoes, garlic, herbs, salt, pepper, and olive oil together in a baking dish. Mix all together until combined.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until the tomatoes have a slight brown color to them.

This is when your house is going to start smelling like an Italian bistro!

Meanwhile you want to cook your pasta. I used spaghetti, but you can use whatever pasta you’d like! My spaghetti took 9 minutes to cook. So I just waited until there was about 20 minutes left for cooking time for my tomatoes and started to boil the water for the pasta, and cooked the pasta.

Once your pasta is done, top with the tomatoes mixture, and make sure to drizzle some of the delicious olive oil on top of your pasta. Add cheese if you please, and enjoy !