Roasted Garlic and Grape Tomato Pasta with Basil and Arugula

Last week, I had to use up some tomatoes from the garden, basil, and arugula. I was craving pasta. So, when I googled these ingredients, several recipes came up and one from Rachel Ray struck my fancy. It was light, delicous, and easy. The perfect pasta for summer! I served with bread and pinot gris.

Roasted Garlic and Grape Tomato Pasta with Basil and Arugula

Ingredients:
Salt
1 pound penne rigate
2 pints grape tomatoes
8 to 10 cloves garlic, cracked but left in skins, plus 1 clove peeled and halved
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

Directions:

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. Turn the oven off.

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. Add penne, grated cheese, arugula and basil and toss a minute or 2 to allow the pasta to soak up flavors.

Adapted from: Rachel Ray