Roasted Tomatoes With Raviolini Pasta

Why This Recipe Works!

If you love the flavors of tomato, garlic and basil together like I do, then roasting the tomatoes and garlic in the oven is a great way to enjoy it all year, no matter what the season. When I first made this for my husband, he was blown away (like I was) on how amazing it tastes with such simple ingredients.

The tomatoes sweeten during the roasting even if you are using tomatoes that are not in season.

The garlic that is roasted with the tomatoes (an entire head of garlic) gets squeezed out of its wrapper into olive oil to create the most amazing garlic olive oil sauce. It just melts completely away. It is so good.

The store bought mini ravioli makes the whole meal very manageable along with adding a nice texture to the dish with just a hint of cheese in each bite. The entire dish only takes about 40 minutes from start to finish.

That is why I Iove this meal!

Ingredients You Need (And Substitutions)

• Vine Ripe Tomatoes: You can also use plum tomatoes.
• Whole Head Of Garlic
• Extra Virgin Olive oil
• Unsalted Butter: This is for the sauce
• Kosher Salt: If you use regular table salt, half the amount in the recipe.
• Mini Cheese Ravioli (Raviolini): You can also use a regular pasta shape but choose on that has some chew like rigatoni pasta or Farfalle (bow-tie pasta) and make sure it is cooked al dente.
• Fresh basil

How To Make Roasted Tomato And Garlic Pasta

1. Prep the tomatoes: Cut tomatoes in half then squeeze out juices into a bowl. Now cut them in quarters and add to a sheet pan.
2. Prep the garlic: Cut the tip off of a head of garlic then add to the sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil and wrap in aluminum foil or cover with a garlic roasting lid.
3. Roast the tomatoes and garlic: Drizzle tomatoes with EVOO as well and roast them for 20 minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven on the middle rack then 5 minutes on the upper rack and 5 minutes on the lower rack. Moving the tomatoes to the top and bottom racks helps the heat directly come in contact with the top and bottom of the pan and roast the tomatoes better. Remove from the oven then set aside.
4. Cook the raviolini pasta: Cook the raviolini (or your preference for pasta) until al dente.
5. Make the sauce: While the pasta cooks, heat some olive oil and butter in a large pan and squeeze the garlic out of the skin. It should be nice and soft from roasting. Mix it into the olive oil and butter mixture until it melts.
6. Assemble: With a spatula, scoop up the tomatoes from the pan and toss that into the olive sauce. Drain the pasta (reserving 1 cup of pasta water) and add that to the sauce as well and toss together. Tear your fresh basil and toss again.

Recipe Tips

• Use a good heavy bottom pan: The high heat needed for roasting needs a heavier duty pan. If you do not have a heavy duty sheet pan, use a baking dish.
• Don't skip moving the tomatoes to the top and bottom racks of the oven: So many people have no idea how useful using those top and bottom racks are. The top chars the tops of the food better and the bottom chars the bottom of the food. It works better than flipping the delicate tomatoes with a spatula.
• Double the sauce for this roasted tomato pasta: The sauce is so good (the tomato and garlic olive oil). I love roasting double the garlic and tomatoes. If there is any extra after eating, I freeze it and use that as a starter base for my tomato basil soup from canned tomatoes.
• Don't let the tomato water go to waste: In the recipe card below, I added my two favorite ways to use the tomato water.