This is a delicious easy pasta dish that makes the most of the wonderful flavours of ripe summer tomatoes. After you've set the tomatoes to roast, you can forget about dinner for a while, just finish it off while the pasta boils. The flavour of the dish really depends on good quality tomatoes, and they need to be quite ripe. Roasting the garlic makes is very mellow, it loses its strong taste and becomes sweet and delicious!
Chop the tomatoes in half and lay them out (cut side up) in a roasting dish. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with lots of freshly ground black pepper. Put them in the oven to roast(180°C) for around 30-45 minutes until the tomatoes are cooked through and starting to colour slightly. Meanwhile, separate the cloves of garlic and place in an oven proof dish, and roast until the garlic is really soft and starting to caramelise. Remove the garlic from the oven and set aside to cool.
When the tomatoes are done, put a large pot of well salted water on to boil for the pasta, and cook according to packet directions. With a knife and fork, roughly chop the roasted tomatoes, keeping them in their roasting dish to contain all the juices and oil. Slip the cloves of garlic from their skins and scatter over the tomatoes, mashing it slightly as you go. Roughly chop the basil and sprinkle over the tomatoes and garlic. When the pasta is cooked, return it to the pan and mix the tomato mixture through. Serve in bowls with extra black pepper.
