Mel's Meals- Cherry Tomato Garlic Penne

For those of you who didn't read last week's Mel's Meals, basically Mel asked me to help out her cooking skills with weekly recipes.

Well Mel, today's recipe is just as easy as the last one. The ingredients are fresh and minimal, but pack a ton of taste. I came up with this recipe one night when I noticed I had a bag of tomatoes on the verge of going bad. I hate throwing out food so I decided to make use out of them by making a simple tomato pasta. The tomatoes I originally used were grape vine, however I am in love with cherry tomatoes, and had a dry pint on hand. Plus I find the sweetness from the cherry tomato, goes well with the fresh basil I use.

So Mel here it is! Remember you can play around with the quantities but this generally feeds about 3-4 people, which works well for me living alone, I freeze the left overs.

Cherry Tomato Garlic Penne

Ingredients:

3 Garlic Cloves

1 dry pint of Cherry Tomatoes

1/4 Cup Chicken Stock

5 Fresh Basil Leaves

1/2 Cup Cheese (any cheddar, mozzarella etc, will work)

3 Cups Penne dry Pasta

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

 Step 1

Chop up the Garlic and fresh Basil, wash tomatoes

Step 2

In a medium sauce pan, add a good amount of Olive Oil to cover bottom of pan, add garlic and cook till light brown, on Medium to High heat.

Step 3

Add 1/4 cup of chicken stock to the oil and garlic, remove the plan before doing this to avoid spraying oil.

Now Mel, garlic can be burned quite easily so really keep an eye on it. The chicken stock makes a good sauce, but it also prevents the garlics from cooking all the way through.

Step 4

Turn down to medium heat and add the tomatoes & basil. Add the salt & pepper and saute the tomatoes until soft enough to mash. (About 20 mins)

 Step 5

Once the tomatoes are cooked, lightly press on them with a fork to release the insides. Turn down to low heat and let cook for another 10 mins while you boil your noodles. 

Preheat oven at 350 degrees

Step 6

Add the pasta to the sauce, I kept 1 tbsp of the pasta water and added it to the sauce. Let cook for about 5 mins so that the noodles absorb some of the sauce.

Step 7

Place pasta in glass baking dish and sprinkle grated cheese

Bake on 350 for 20 minutes or until cheese is cooked.

& Voila! Add fresh basil to garnish and serve.