When it is summer, I think of pasta salad. And although cherry tomatoes are just beginning to grow in my garden, they are still yummy when you roast store-bought cherry tomatoes.
This is a pasta salad that is easy to make and often, you have the ingredients at home, adding/subtracting ingredients with what you have.
Pasta Salad with Roasted Tomatoes
(adapted from the wonderful smittenkitchen.com)
Roast the tomatoes: Wash 4 cups of cherry or grape tomatoes, dry, cut in half. Place on a cookie sheet (parchment underneath is nice to catch the juices that you can soak up with bread and eat!!) in a single layer, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Roast in a 300 degrees for about 90 minutes, until the tomatoes are a bit shriveled. Set aside to cool completely.
—Oregano Dressing
1 large/2 small cloves garlic
1 and 1/2 Tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon Kosher salt (or to taste)
Black pepper
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
Chop the garlic, oregano and salt on a cutting board,
until it is finely chopped, almost a paste
and transfer it to a small bowl. Mix the vinegar and the lemon juice in to it, then slowly drizzle the olive oil in while whisking the mixture.
—The rest of the salad mixings:
1 pound small pasta (I used mini penne) cooked as the instructions direct, but take it out of the water 1 – 2 minutes before the al dente stage. It will continue to cook as it cools.
6 ounces of a dry cheese, crumbled–I used queso fresco
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/4 cup sunflower seeds, toasted
salt and pepper
handful of fresh arugula, roughly and thinly chopped (the original recipe used basil, but I did not have any)
Combine the pasta, cheese, nuts, tomatoes, and arugula in a large bowl. Combine them together gently!! Finish by topping with the dressing, or serve it on the side and let everyone top it themselves.