We watched Rachael Ray make this over the weekend, and I begged Randy to cook it for me. Yeah, I cooked the penne and stirred the sauce in. That was the extent of my involvement. It was delicious! Can’t wait to have it leftover tonight! :tongue:

Roasted Garlic and Grape Tomato Pasta with Basil and Arugula Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray, 2007

Salt
1 pound penne rigate
2 pints grape (we used “cherry”) tomatoes* I just found out there IS a difference. It was STILL good!
8 to 10 cloves garlic, cracked but left in skins, plus 1 clove peeled and halved
3 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus some, for drizzling
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup grated Parmigianino-Reggiano, a few generous handfuls
1 cup basil leaves, about 20, torn or shredded
2 cups coarsely chopped arugula

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Place a pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil for the pasta. Salt water, add pasta and cook to just-shy of al dente. It needs to have a real bite left to it because it will sit in the sauce for 2 minutes later on and continue to cook. Heads up: you will need 2 ladles of starchy cooking water just before draining, about 1-1/2 cups.

Place the grape tomatoes on a cookie sheet with the garlic. Coat the tomatoes and cracked garlic with 3 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and season with lots of salt and pepper. Roast 20 minutes.

Take the tomatoes and garlic out of the oven. Remove the roasted garlic from the skins and mash into a paste with the side of your knife. Transfer the garlic paste to the bottom of a pasta bowl. Using a fork, mix the garlic into 2 ladles of starchy pasta cooking water, about 1 1/2 cups. Add the tomatoes to the bowl and mash them with a potato masher until a sauce forms and tomatoes are well combined with garlic broth. (We used a blender to puree.) Add penne, grated cheese, arugula and basil and toss a minute or 2 to allow the pasta to soak up flavors.

Eat!!