This pas­ta is an all-time favorite of the sum­mer time. It is excel­lent when eat­en warm but just gets bet­ter if you let it cool down and bring it to a pic­nic or leave it in the fridge to eat it the day after when you won’t have time to cook. When you pre­pare it, be sure to allow some time to bake the toma­toes in the oven slow­ly and at low tem­per­a­ture (you could do this also on the pre­vi­ous day, leav­ing them to rest in the oven).

Time: 15 min­utes prepa­ra­tion | 1 hour cook­ing time

Spe­cial uten­sils
a hand blender

Ingre­di­ents (serves 4)

pesto
2 hand­fuls of basil leaves
2 tbsp pine nuts
2 tbsp grat­ed parme­san
a mild extra vir­gin olive oil
salt

pas­ta and toma­toes
400 g gar­ganel­li (you can use anoth­er kind of short pas­ta but gar­ganel­li are real­ly the best for this)
200 g sweet cheery or pachi­no toma­toes
3 tbsp bread­crumbs
1 tbsp dried oregano
extra vir­gin olive oil, salt and pep­per

1. Wash the toma­toes, cut them in half and let them drain for half an hour on a grid. Pre­heat oven at 110°.
2. Place them on a mold with bak­ing paper, cut-side up. Sea­son with salt, pep­per, extra vir­gin olive oil, bread­crumbs and oregano. Bake in the oven for about one hour, they should be quite dry.
3. In the mean­time pre­pare the pesto fol­low­ing this pro­ce­dure. Bring a large pot of water to boil.
4. Cook the gar­ganel­li and drain them, keep­ing some of the cook­ing water aside. Sea­son with pesto (if they are a bit too dry, add a cou­ple of spoons cook­ing water), then and add the toma­toes on top, mix­ing them very gen­tly to the pas­ta.