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Pasta With Burst Cherry Tomatoes

5.0(3782)

This recipe may seem like it calls for a lot of mint, but that’s what makes this easy pasta dish so refreshing. Cooking halved cherry tomatoes in olive oil until they burst condenses their flavor and caramelizes their edges, and makes a very intense base for the pasta sauce in this dish. Pancetta adds richness and a salty tang, but if you’d rather leave it out, you can. Just toss in some grated pecorino cheese at the end along with the butter.

by Melissa Clark

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Dinner, Lunch, Weeknight, Pastas, Main Course

Servings

(4–6)

Total time

20 min

Calories / serving

545 kcal

Ingredients (12)

serves

1 pound fusilli pasta
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, more for drizzlingolive-oil
6 ounces pancetta, preferably thick cut, dicedpancetta
6 garlic cloves, smashed and peeledgarlic
Pinch of red pepper flakesred-pepper-flakes
Fine sea salt and black pepper, as neededpepper
1 quart cherry or grape tomatoes, halvedtomato
3 tablespoons butterbutter
Fresh ricotta cheese, for serving (optional)ricotta
3 cups whole mint leaves, tornmint
4 scallions, preferably red scallions for color, thinly slicedscallion
Flaky sea salt, to finishsalt

Instructions (4 steps)

01Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until 1 minute shy of al dente. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking water.
02Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat for 15 seconds, then add the oil and heat until it thins out and easily coats the pan when swirled. Add pancetta and cook until it starts to render its fat, about 2 minutes. Add garlic, red pepper flakes and a large pinch of salt and pepper and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook until they burst, turn golden at the edges and shrivel up slightly, about 5 to 8 minutes.

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Rich recipe — supports nutrition-aware planning.