Nancy Harmon Jenkins' Pasta with Baked Tomato Sauce

Dear, sweet, gentle reader. It is taking all of my mental and most of my physical capacity to endure life until tomorrow night when Germany plays Spain in the semi-finals of the World Cup. If you've been following along, and I sure hope you have (the drama! the intrigue! the exhilaration!), you might have caught drift of the way the German team is playing and though I've been a devoted fan since the age of five, when a sticker of Rudi Völler in all his permed and mustachioed glory found a permanent home glued to the underside of a shelf positioned right above my bed so that I could see him before I went to sleep at night and first thing when I woke up, I have to say it's never been this much fun to watch them play. And how they have played!

Anyway, since you come here for food and chat and not sports commentary, I will do my very best to keep my nerves to myself, but I'll just say it's hard, okay? It's hard! You should see my cuticles. My new gray hair. Me muttering to myself before I go to sleep at night. "They'll be okay without Müller, right?" "Maybe David Villa will get the stomach flu." "Four goals against Australia! Four goals against England! Four goals against Argentina!" "Please, psychic octopus, please be wrong just this one time."

It's exhausting.

Food and chat, woman! Focus. Okay.

So, the other day I was thinking about spaghetti. I think about spaghetti a lot, you know. Maybe because I'm half-Italian. Maybe because we eat it multiple times a week. Maybe just because it's good. Who knows. I was thinking about spaghetti and how I go through phases with spaghetti sauce. Like, there were a good two years where my favorite tomato sauce involved canned cherry tomatoes, a small can of tuna and a garlic clove. I made it over and over and over again until I could no longer look at tuna the same way again (good thing, too). Then I had a thing with Marcella Hazan's tomato-butter-and-onion sauce. Over and over and over again, until it started tasting like tomato soup to me and I had to take a break. Then there was the sauce made with sliced zucchini simmered in diced tomatoes (Muir Glen, I miss you!), particularly delicious with grated Parmigiano - I do believe that one lasted the longest. But my first love, the tomato sauce that started the obsessive sauce-making, well, I had managed to banish it from my memory so entirely that when it popped back into my head the other day, I almost jumped.

That tomato sauce, made of little cherry tomatoes halved and baked in the oven with a cheese-breadcrumb topping, was one of the four pillars of my diet during my first years in New York. I made it All. The. Time. I found it in the Best American Recipes cookbook from the year 2000 and I committed it to memory. My roommates were obsessed, my faraway boyfriend smitten. It was fast, it was cheap, it didn't dirty many pots, and it was delicious. Best recipe, indeed.

But as these things go, I overdid it. I made it one too many times, relied on it too much for weekly nourishment. I started getting tired of halving those little tomatoes, making sure their perky little faces faced the right side up in the baking pan, getting the sprinkle of breadcrumbs and cheese just right. One day, I moved on. (What came next? Olives and capers with peeled plum tomatoes, I believe. Oh...that was a good run. Don't forget the parsley.) So on that I forgot all about my beloved baked tomato sauce, until I was lying around thinking about spaghetti sauce the other day, probably in an attempt to distract myself from the terrifying prospect that was the Argentina game, because why on earth else would I have needed distraction?

[FOUR-NIL, SUCKERS!]

Focus, woman. Fo-cus.

I went through my old recipe binder and sure enough, there was the recipe, lying sweetly in wait to be welcomed back into the fold again. And really, it is so good. The tomatoes, roasting under their garlicky-cheesy cap, collapse and go all sweet and sticky. The breadcrumbs get toasty, the cheese melts and browns, the garlic infuses everything with this savory, mouthwatering scent. You mash everything together loosely, adding some olive oil for moisture and aroma, and torn basil leaves for flavor. Then in go the cooked pasta (penne are nicest, I find, but spaghetti works wonderfully, too). You can dish it up into plates, then, or, if you're eating alone just fork it up out of the serving dish (the little crusty bits in the corners are especially good). And that's it. Obsession-worthy, no?

Almost enough to distract me from the game taking place just a short 27 hours and 8 minutes from now. Almost. So now if you'll excuse me, I have some incantations to do.

DEUTSCHLAND!!!!!!

Pasta with Baked Tomato Sauce
Serves 4

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound very ripe cherry tomatoes, halved
1/3 cup plain dry breadcrumbs
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano
2 tablespoons freshly grated pecorino (or, if you don't have this, just more Parmigiano)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound dried penne or spaghetti
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, torn

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 13-by-9-inch baking dish with one-third of the oil. Place the tomatoes cut side up in the dish.

2. In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs, cheeses, and garlic and toss with a fork to mix well. Sprinkle the bread-crumb mixture over the tomatoes, making sure that each cut side is well covered with the crumb mixture. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake until the tomatoes are cooked through and starting to brown on top, about 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente. Time the pasta so it finishes cooking about the time the tomatoes are ready to come out of the oven.

4. When the tomatoes are done, add the basil and stir vigorously to mix everything into a sauce. Drain the pasta and immediately transfer it to the baking dish. Add the remaining olive oil and mix well. Serve at once.

Comments

[Tyla]

Luisa, I can't wait to try this out! I recently found a recipe I've been threatening to over-do for zucchini spaghetti...you might like it (bit.ly/bkqBER)! Is zucchini in season over there across the ocean?

[margie]

I'm rooting for Germany too - I haven't really had a "team" lately (I typically root for Spain, but they've not been doing it for me this year), but Germany's play has been too fantastic not to root for them. What can I say, I'm fickle.

This dish sounds wonderful - I never think to do anything with breadcrumbs. Whenever I have stale bread, I make croutons, and they usually get eaten as snacks before I even have a chance to make a salad. My go-to tomato sauce is still Marcella's, but I also fall back on a chunky, vegetable filled sauce, usually replete with garlic, onions, mushrooms, and spinach. And some more garlic. I'm just as likely to eat that one with a hunk of crusty bread as with pasta.

[Vanessa]

Good thing you got this recipe in before you faint with excitement and the heatwave returns. I'm planning on testing it tomorrow. I'm such a fan of your olive oil baked tomato pasta recipe so am sure this one's a winner, just as Germany will be. Do you have a vuvuzela?

[Krista]

Oh, I love this post, Luisa! Your barely contained excitement makes me laugh. :-) These tomatoes look so fantastic!!!

[jonquil]

yum! this one will be in the oven as soon as our east coast heat-wave dies away...am hoping that the little octopus is as wrong as he was about the argentina game being close ( take *that* coach m.!).

[Jessika]

Of course, germany will win :)

[jenny]

omg, no! I just made the zucchini version of your amazing eggplant pasta for lunch today. then I made the mistake of reading this entry ... and now I'm starving all over again. I can't do pasta again for dinner (because it would just be wrong, right?) but lunch tomorrow, yes! ... well, provided I don't melt from the 100-degree temps outside first!

[Erica]

This looks absolutely perfect. We're having it for dinner tonight. My husband and I are rooting for Germany too! I am a Yankees fan and last fall I almost couldn't stand it when they made it to the world series. I could barely watch the screen, couldn't sleep at night and basically could not wait for it to be over. I feel your pain. They took the World Series title last year so I'll say a little prayer for Deutchland while eating my pasta tonight.

[Marce]

hahaha I´ll try not to get your comments get to my sore Argentine behind! :P As for Paul the octopus, I think he´s going to be wrong this time, Germany has been playing way better than Spain has, but the thing with football is you never know, so we´ll see. For now, I am rooting for Uruguay to make it to the finals, though the logic would be a Germany-Holland final.

[Zia Elle]

If you are half italian I'm all italian my dear......and I can say your spaghetti recipe is wonderfull!!
The first appointment is tonight with Holland and Uruguay, than tomorrow the two bigs Spain and Germany..............evrything can happen ;)
cross the fingers!!

[Victoria]

I really like Nancy Harmon Jenkins. Her Mediterranean Diet Cookbook is excellent! So was Fran McCullough's the "Best of" series. During the winter, I make a savory bread pudding from one of the volumes, and I think it is to die for. (Right now it's 101 degrees in NYC so it's not sounding particularly appetizing at this very minute, but an Edy's Tangerine Ice Bar sounds pretty tempting. If I could just snap my fingers to make one appear in my hand without having to go out into the heat to get one, I would be one happy puppy.)

I trust you on any recipe but particularly toppings for pasta. I make your tomato sauce with ricotta recipe all the time. It's one of my favorites. I will definitely make this one when the local cherry tomatoes come in.

I hope Germany wins. That would entitle you - and a special friend - to a few glasses of champagne.

[Emily]

This is so one of my favorite summertime recipes! I almost always make it with sungold orange cherry tomatoes from the garden, which are extra sweet -- it is heaven!

[Sasa]

I've absorbed quite a bit of "DEUTSCHLAND!" osmotically from my Austrian boyfriend (who incidentally takes quite a bit of crap from other Austrians for supporting the German team) and now you too! Think I'll just give in, obviously the universe is trying to tell me something...
"DEUTSCHLAND!"

[Tracy]

I was an exchange student at the University of Freiburg in 1989/90 and will never forget being there when the West German team won the World Cup (in Italy that year). That was a raucous night in Baden-Württemburg! Looking forward to tomorrow's game, and hoping for a Dutch/German final.

And I will be making the pasta in August when I'm buried under mounds of cherry tomatoes from my garden!

[Maddie]

Ooh, this looks great! We're having a heatwave here in Virginia, but since I'm living in a perma-AC environment, spaghetti with a nice roasty sauce sounds awesome. Good luck in tomorrow's game! :)

[Kristin]

Oh, this sounds like such a nice comfort food recipe. I can picture eating this on a Friday night after a long week, curled up on the couch, and drinking it with red wine. Perhaps this Friday...

[Anna]

Yesss. I have a mother lode of homegrown cherry tomatoes and I just read this post and was thinking, "darn, I don't have any breadcrumbs or bread with which to make them," and then I realized that I TOTALLY DO and yay!

Although I bet it would be good without the breadcrumbs, too. Who knows. I am so not a low-carb person but somehow the combination of bread and pasta just freaks me out. I cannot explain this quirk.

[my spatula]

they are looking unbeatable!

[Katharine @ agirlinmadrid]

Dear Luisa,
I'm sorry to report that I will be routing for SPAIN while enjoying this delicious recipe tomorrow. And even if Germany wins, I will still adore you and your food!

Of course you understand 'a girl in Madrid' could just not go any other way. Even if I am Canadian :)

Anyways, viel gluck. Bis morgen!

[Kerry]

I can finally relax since the Dutch won last night! Soon, the anxiety will return when they take on Germany in the final (see how I did that?). As for the recipe, I'm obsessed with grape/cherry tomatoes in pasta right now. This is definitely up my alley, thanks!
Kerry@Foodlovas

[Natasa]

We in Croatia are almost all for Germany to win today (as far as I could gather from talking to people) and therefore hope that Paul the octopus is totally wrong this time! I think he's totally fun, though!

[la ninja]

ha ha ha! the stress, I hear ya!

I'm supporting both Holland (and it WAS stressful yesterday, I'm telling you, all my muscles ache from the strain), where I live; AND Spain (tonight, bloody 'ell, I'll need serious fysio after this week), where I come from. want to hear about stressful?
it's proving to be exhausting indeed.

good luck to you but I'm, obviously, with la roja this evening. tra la la la.

oh yeah, and thanks for the recipe. boiled octopus it was, right? ;P

[MB]

First of all your recipe sounds 'simply' delicious! But then again I love all your recipes. I have been following you for a long time and usually do not post comments, because I am content with what YOU have to say. But tonight is the BIG game, and as a food obsessed person who lives a specular life to yours (I am half American - a New Yorker - and half German - part of my family lives or has lived in Berlin - but live in Italy and grew up here) I just wanted to say I was sad when Italy got kicked out (although they deserved it this time), I was enthusiastic about the US going as far as they did and now put all my hopes in the game tonight. Deutschland! And who cares what Paul the Octopus says, right???

[Valerie]

Mit dem Herzen in der Hand und der Leidenschaft im Bein! Will definitely try this recipe, looks gorgeous! Ole!!!

[Jen]

Oh I love the crusty sides of something baked with cheese on it. I, too, am guilty of scraping my fork along the side of the serving bowl. This recipe comes with perfect timing because I have a big chunk of pecorino cheese in my refrigerator that I got from the Murray's cheese stall that has gone into my local Kroger Grocery store. (Aren't we lucky down here in Cincinnati to have an extension of Murrays? My husband and I are obsessed with trying new cheeses there.) I am also going to the farmer's market on Saturday morning and I am really looking forward to some tomatoes!

[irene]

mmmh i love oven baked tomatoes, so i will surely like this dish :)

[kim]

Haha, this morning there was a feature on the radio about the Orange-mania in the Netherlands. They were already talking about beating Germany in the finals. I guess that means that they're convinced Germany will win this evening.
If the Dutch do win I hope no-one gets hurt there, the level of craziness after winning the semi finals is already over the roof :)

[Koek!]

In honour of your sublime Pasta with Baked Tomato Sauce recipe, I will be supporting Germany tonight, here in Cape Town. Did you watch the Holland/Uruguay game last night? It was a scorcher. If Germany ends up playing Holland, though, I will be conflicted...
Maybe I'll just stick to trying this obsession-worthy recipe.
Robyn

[Caitlin]

I'm also rooting for Germany in the World Cup. That's where my last name comes from, after all. I love any recipes that are colorful, so I'm sold on this one! Thanks for sharing, it looks delicious!
-Caitlin
http://amusebouche-caitlin.blogspot.com

[NewYorkDely]

Your sauces always look so delicate but vibrant. Can you post the tuna and tomato sauce you used to make? I recently made that as well but I'm pretty sure my recipe could use some tweaking.

[Rachel]

This looks delicious, as usual. Love your blog. Really sorry about the game!

[The Food Hunter]

Those baked tomatoes look so good

[gemma]

Hope you are handling the match result ok. Nothing quite like a ref making a horrendous call right before half time (I certainly know what that is like...). Anyway, perhaps as a way to keep yourself from getting too depressed you can find time to cook up a delicious paella chock full of (psychic) octopus?

[Nicole @cookingafterfive]

I think about spaghetti often too, and always love finding new ways to make tomato sauce. Can't wait to try this soon. Thanks for sharing!

[Katie]

Hope you're not too upset about the game. At least you have wonderful food to eat.

[MB - Nuts about food]

I agree with gemma, your next dish should be octopus based! Very sorry about the match...

[Luisa]

Heartbreak! What a sad night. But, as was obvious to the world, as much as it hurts to say it, Spain deserved to win that game. I'm looking forward to 2012 and 2014!

[rach]

.........but the 4-0 thrill will last a while I bet (even I was excited and I don't even like football)
As for this, fantastic. I've made a roasted tomato pasta, I've even put toasted breadcrumbs on it, but I've never thought of roasting them together. This may well be made for lunch.

[Alexa]

I am so sorry! I love your receipes and I love the Deutsche Mannschaft and I was crestfallen that Spain took them out yesterday. Be of good hope...Müller and the boys are young and they'll be back in four years time better than ever.

[dervla]

eating the leftovers of this recipe now for lunch at my desk. Delicious, thank you! Sorry about Germany's loss, I think Paul the psychic octopus is going to need a bodyguard!

[The History Chef!]

this looks great, can't wait to try it! and sorry about the world cup loss - ouch!

[Petra]

Luisa
Thank you. Thank you.
Ran out and picked all my cherry tomatoes!
What a dish.
It is going to be a real good summer!

[Lynn]

Just made this recipe. What a treat. I used roma tomatoes from my csa basket and it was just as good. Thanks for sharing.

[xtreme NO]

This recipe is great..I made it last night in a party and every one was that it was the best one..thanks..I also really liked it.

[Agnes]

What a delicious recipe! I made i for lunch today and absolutely loved it. Thanks for sharing!

[Julie]

Luisa -- this was DELICIOUS, simple, quick and amazing. a new staple in my home. thanks! julie

[julie]

This was one of the first things you taught me to cook! love, love, love this recipe. x

[zuza zak]

another spaghetti sauce to add to the repertoire - thank you! this has been my fave for a while now - spaghetti with beans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCzD76xKaQ8

zx

[Megan]

I just tried this. It is officially my new favorite. It's light and delicious and just all around feels good to eat. Thanks for sharing!

[Lenetta]

Oooh, this sounds delish! I linked on my weekly roundup, post is under my name. Thanks for sharing!