This is my new favorite easy-as-pie pasta recipe…at least as long as the cherry tomatoes keep coming. When the cherry tomatoes started turning red, I turned to The Herbfarm Cookbook for ideas. This recipe is so simple, it’s hardly a recipe. This is cooking at its easiest.
This feeds two:
Heat oven to 450. Start a large pot of water to boil. Add salt to the water when boils.
Halve about a cup of cherry tomatoes. Toss with a little olive oil, a pinch of salt, and about a tablespoon of fresh thyme. Spread evenly on a rimmed baking sheet or enameled cast iron skillet.
Add 8 oz of dried spaghetti to the water. While spaghetti cooks, place tomatoes in oven and cook for 6-8 minutes, depending on the size of the cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes will shrivel up a bit. Remove from oven.
When spaghetti is cooked, drain and toss with tomatoes. Divide onto two warmed bowls. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and a bit of parsley, if available.
It doesn’t get any easier.
When you’re cooking pasta, always keep in mind that you should only add salt to the water before it boils vigorously, not when it boils already. Since salt will lengthen the time for the water to boil, and needs incorporation of it into the pasta, it’ll take longer before you need to cook them.
As different sizes of pasta varies and you specified spaghetti, which we’d consider size 10, it’ll be better if you put 1/8:1 of water and salt, give it a go al dente.
Don’t forget, Al Dente is a widely misinterpreted term.
Look at your pasta, give it a press and bite. It should be almost cooked, but not there yet.
Happy cooking!