Cheesy Roasted Tomato Pasta Bake
Cheesy Roasted Tomato Pasta Bake takes the simple, homely, pasta bake to a new level.
But it’s still incredibly easy to make. That’s because at its heart is a roasted tomato sauce that can be made in advance.
All that’s left to do then is combine the sauce with cooked pasta, plenty of cheese and basil, then bake to bubbling perfection.
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I came up with this Cheesy Roasted Tomato Pasta Bake specifically to use my wonderful homemade Roasted Tomato Sauce.
Roasting tomatoes with onions, garlic and herbs not only intensifies the flavours, but also makes it an easy, largely hands-off recipe.
As the caramelized veg is whizzed to a puree, you don’t even need to skin or deseed the tomatoes.
The Roasted Tomato Sauce will be fine in the fridge for 3 or 4 days, or in the freezer for about a month.
That means you can have some tucked away and make this Cheesy Roasted Tomato Pasta Bake even faster.
CHEESY
Other than the Roasted Tomato Sauce, the other main flavouring is cheese. And plenty of it.
I like to use a mix of different cheeses. Mozzarella for its gooey stringiness, Parmesan for its complexity and deep savouriness, and a sheep’s cheese because I love that farmyardy tang!
But you could use almost combination of cheese you like. Just don’t be mean with it.
THE PASTA
I think this sauce goes best with a tubular pasta like tortiglione, rigatoni, cavatappi, or penne.
You want the central hole, and all those little grooves, to get full of squidgy, oozy sauce.
The only other ingredients you’ll need are a bit of butter and olive oil, salt and pepper, plus fresh basil.
CHEESY ROASTED TOMATO PASTA BAKE
I really don’t need to tell you how to put a pasta bake together do I?
Okay, just in case, here goes.
- Get your oven nice and hot, with a dish preheating inside.
- Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water, drain it and return it to the saucepan.
- Mix the sauce into the hot pasta along with butter, the cheeses, basil and some seasoning.
- Transfer to the hot dish, sprinkle with a little more cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.
- Put in the oven until bubbling furiously then serve.
This is a lovely, rich dish and all it needs with it is a fresh green salad (spinach, avocado and bacon is good) with a perky dressing.
Eaten like that, the recipe will serve two people generously. Serve with bread as well and it will feed three.
Whether you’re looking for a way to use lots of homegrown tomatoes, or just looking for something a bit more interesting to do with shop bought, I think Cheesy Roasted Tomato Pasta Bake would be a great choice.
Cheesy Roasted Tomato Pasta Bake
Using a roasted tomato sauce takes the simple, homely, pasta bake to a new level. But it's still incredibly easy to make.
Ingredients
- 160-240 g dried tubular pasta e.g. tortiglione, rigatoni, penne
- salt
- 1 recipe homemade Roasted Tomato Sauce see instructions & Recipe Notes for link to recipe
- 20 g butter
- 150 g ball of mozzarella cheese squeezed dry then roughly torn
- 40 g semi hard goat's cheese or other hard/semi hard cheese e.g. Cheddar
- 30 g Parmesan cheese finely grated, plus extra for sprinkling
- 1 large handful fresh basil leaves roughly torn
- freshly ground black pepper
- extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
Instructions
-
Preheat the oven to 220C /200C Fan/Gas 7.
Put inside a shallow ovenproof dish to heat up.
-
Put a large pan of water on to boil.
Add a handful of salt, then stir in the dried pasta.
Cook until the pasta is only just tender then drain.
Return the pasta to the saucepan.
-
Off the heat, stir in the Roasted Tomato Sauce, butter, cheeses, and basil leaves.
Season with black pepper, taste, and add salt if necessary.
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Put the pasta and sauce into the preheated dish, sprinkle with the reserved Parmesan and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
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Place in the oven and cook until bubbling hot all the way through (15-25 min).
Serve with salad.
Recipe Notes
Use this recipe to make the Roasted Tomato Sauce. The sauce can be made 3-4 days in advance, or up to a month if frozen.