Why not!
When you have an overabundance of cherry tomatoes from the garden, and don’t want to put too much effort into a summer weekday meal, give grilled linguine a shot.
Well, the linguine isn’t really grilled, per se… but the sauce is!
Nothing could be easier, and the flavours are intense.
Gather a bunch of cherry tomatoes (about a kilo, I suppose… I didn’t measure), and toss them in a grill-proof container with 4 coarsely chopped cloves of garlic, some red pepper flakes, Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, dried oregano, basil and rosemary and a healthy glug and a half of extra-virgin olive oil.
Preheat the grill on medium to about 450°F, then slide the tray of tomatoes on and close the lid.
After about 15 minutes, things start getting serious.
Another five minutes later, all the tomatoes’ membranes have burst and the juices are starting to flow.
It’s even starting to sound good!
No need to stir anything at this stage… just let it go. Another fifteen minutes later, the tomatoes are starting to shrivel and some skins are starting to caramelise. But we’re not ready yet!
Another 10…
Another 7 minutes or so and we’re getting close to the end.
Time to add some tomato paste. I had about half a tube left, which was perfect.
By this point, it’s time to boil the linguine (to VERY al dente) and reserve about a cup of the pasta cooking water. Gotta make use of that sweet, sweet gluten.
Add about a cup of pasta water… don’t worry about anything getting watery; the al dente pasta will soak everything up perfectly well.
Toss the linguine straight into the sauce. Give it all a good stir.
Add some fresh basil leaves and serve with grated Parmesan and fresh ground black pepper.
At this point, the sauce cooked for about an hour and a quarter… but with almost zero effort. Barely any stirring or fussing of any kind. A perfect hands-off, lazy meal.
That didn’t last long. So much for leftovers at lunch tomorrow!
