A Late Summer Pasta dish with Cherry Tomatoes you’ll love!

A late summer pasta dish with cherry tomatoes you’ll love and it’s perfect if you had a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes in your garden. Store-bought cherry or grape tomatoes work great too! This recipe comes together quickly and you likely have almost everything you need in your pantry.

What I love about this simple dish is that it’s so delicious, easy to make, and tastes way more complicated than the simplicity of the dish. It’s perfect to make at the end of summer when you have fresh basil growing in a pot or in the garden and maybe if you are like us, a ton of cherry tomatoes. Add some olive oil, garlic, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, and basil and you have a meal.

Watch this short video to see how quickly this baked tomato sauce with cherry tomatoes comes together!

We served this over the weekend for a very last minute backyard gathering!

I love to have a few recipes that come to mind as you are about to invite a couple for dinner last minute. This is one of those dishes! We had a salad, some 2-ingredient focaccia (recipe coming soon), and store-bought gelato! So easy and a lovely evening on the patio!

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

We set the table with a mix of things and added cut flowers from the garden that matched the tablecloth from Garnet Hill.

The dishes and tablecloth are from Garnet Hill. Table runner similar to this one.

Baked Tomato Pasta Sauce with Fusilli

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This is your new favorite pasta dish! It’s from the Smitten Kitchen archives and it’s a good one to have in your back pocket to serve to family or for last-minute get-togethers with friends!

• Author: Smitten Kitchen
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 4 1x
• Category: pasta, main dish
• Method: easy
• Cuisine: italian

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 pound cherry or grape tomatoes cut in half
• 1/3 cup bread crumbs (I made them with 2 slices of white bread, crusts trimmed, toasted, and then put into the food processor), Panko would work great too and much easier!
• 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
• 2 garlic cloves
• salt and pepper
• about 1/4 cup olive oil, plus a little more
• fresh basil

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Instructions

1. In a shallow baking dish, drizzle the olive oil in the bottom of the dish and place cherry tomatoes, cut side up in a single layer. Add salt and pepper.
2. In a separate dish, combine the bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, chopped garlic, and toss with a fork to combine.
3. Sprinkle over the entire dish of tomatoes and then add another drizzle of olive oil on top. Put in the oven uncovered for about 20 minutes or until the tomatoes are cooked through and the bread crumbs are starting to turn golden brown.
4. While the tomatoes are baking, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water generously and cook the Fusilli pasta according to the package, but make sure it’s slightly undercooked or al dente*. Try to time the pasta close to when the tomatoes are coming out of the oven!
5. When the tomatoes are done, mash with a fork and then mix with the cooked pasta and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the basil and toss and serve with additional parmesan cheese.

Notes

*al dente pasta in Italian means “to the tooth” – according to Bon Appetit, al dente means where pasta tastes and feels the best.