The Slow Kitchen: Roast Tomato and Olive Pasta

This is such an easy, tasty pasta you can easily alter, depending on what's on offer and who will be eating with you. Feel free to add and remove ingredients to suit.Just like other recipes in The Slow Kitchen series, this weeknight dinner is simple, easy, healthy and full of real ingredients. Enjoy!

Roast Tomato and Olive Pasta

(Serves 4, Ready in 30min)

I've made this particular recipe up myself, so the measurements are more like guesses. Feel free to adjust as you need/like. (You'd have to try really hard to screw this up!)You'll need:

• fresh tomatoes - a couple of generous handfuls per person (cherry, Roma, truss - it doesn't matter)
• crushed garlic
• half a jar of kalamata olives, drained
• fresh basil
• olive oil
• penne or similar pasta
• salt and pepper
• chilli flakes (optional)
• parmesan cheese to serve

Simply:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 220C/420F.
2. Cut your tomatoes into chunks, or if you're using cherry tomatoes, leave whole.
3. Place into a baking tray and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for 15 minutes. Put your water for the pasta on to boil.
4. Take the tomatoes out, give them a shake/flip and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
5. At the same time, put your pasta on.
6. Heat some olive oil in a large frypan and cook the garlic and chilli for a minute. Add your kalamata olives, roasted tomatoes, torn basil leaves and salt and pepper. Cook for a minute or two.
7. Drain your pasta and add to the frypan, combining well.
8. Serve with parmesan cheese and fresh basil.

Variations/Additions:Need Meat?: Add some shredded chicken.More Vegetables: Use sliced and sauteed zucchini, or sauteed cauliflower florets instead of pasta.Vegan: You're good to go as long as you leave out the cheese.Gluten-Free: Use zucchini pasta or a commercial gluten-free option instead. Does this sound good to you? It's not quite 10am and I now have a hankering for this dish...(image via Mallory Dash on Flickr)