Roasted Cherry Tomato Pasta

Hey everyone! I thought I'd share the meal that we had for dinner tonight...it was SO GOOD. I'm still a little fixated on it and I want to eat more of it, so instead I'm going to write about it. I'm sure that will be JUST as satisfying, right?

Ahem.

OK, I basically adapted the recipe from this Emeril Lagasse recipe on the food network site. I know, right? It's really shocking that Michael would eat anything Emeril makes. However, it should be noted that by "adapted" I mean " pretty much totally copied except for I left out all the fatty cheese at the end". Aha! Mystery solved.

Ingredients:

• approx 2.5 lbs cherry tomatoes, halved (note: Emeril's recipe called for various colors of tomatoes...yellow and heirloom green in addition to red. They were hard to find and I'm not that fancy. All red works great, too.)
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 Tblsp balsamic vinegar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 cup chiffonade fresh basil leaves
• 2 Tblsp chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano (Emeril's recipe calls for 1 tsp of fresh...I don't use oregano that often, so I elected to just use my dried oregano that I already had rather than buy expensive, fresh oregano of which I would use one tsp and then throw the rest away after I found it several weeks later all nasty in the bottom of my fridge.)
  
• 1/2 package of Angel hair pasta (We use whole wheat...yum!)
  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. Combine tomatoes, garlic, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes in a large glass baking dish. Bake 40-45 mins.
3. When the tomatoes are done baking, toss in the basil, parsley, and oregano.
   
4. Meanwhile, cook the pasta and then toss with the tomatoes.
   
5. EAT!

If you choose to check out the link above you'll see that the original recipe called for ricotta salata and pecorino cheeses as well as a bunch of toasted pine nuts. My version is probably less tasty, but on the upside I'll be able to wear my pants tomorrow. I sprinkled some grated parmesan on it and called it a day. If you add all the cheese, you might want to use the entire package of pasta as the original recipe calls for (the whole package ended up being too many noodles with just the tomatoes) and make sure your sweats are clean.