Description
This simple caprese pasta bake is the perfect quick and easy weeknight meal! It's a warm and melty version of a summer classic -- the caprese salad.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 4 cups cherry or grape tomatoes
- 1/4 teaspoon salt + 1 teaspoon for boiling the pasta
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 8 ounces small pasta (such as rotini or penne)
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, sliced into ribbons
- 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced or cut into chunks
Instructions
- Prep. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and drizzle some olive oil into a 9x13-inch baking dish (slightly smaller will work).
- Roast tomatoes. Add the tomatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper to the bottom of the baking dish, and stir to evenly coat the tomatoes. They should be crowding each other, which will help create steam to make saucy tomatoes. Roast at 400 degrees for 25 minutes, or until bursting.
- Cook pasta. While tomatoes are roasting, bring a medium-large pot of water to a rolling boil with 1 teaspoon of salt. Add pasta, then reduce heat slightly. Cook pasta, stirring occasionally until al dente (see package instructions for anticipated time), then drain the pasta in a colander and give it a quick rinse with warm water (helps to remove starch and prevent noodles from sticking together).
- Combine ingredients and bake. Remove the tomatoes from the oven and gently mash them with the back of a spoon. They should be bursting and easily mash, creating a saucy tomato layer in the bottom of your baking dish. Top with the mozzarella cheese slices, and sprinkle with pepper and more fresh basil. Reduce oven heat to 375 degrees, loosely cover baking dish with foil, and bake for another 10 minutes until the mozzarella is just melted. Serve warm!
Notes
- Fresh mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella is higher in moisture than the blocks of low moisture mozzarella you see at the store. Because of that, they can get a bit more chewy or rubbery as they cool. To avoid this, we don't bake the pasta for too long once the mozzarella is on (10 minutes total). I used fresh mozzarella to stay true to the caprese theme here, but if you don't like the texture of mozzarella that's been cooked and cooled, feel free to use shredded!
- Foil. Covering with foil in the last step helps to keep the pasta moist and heats the mozzarella more gently, so that it's melty when it comes out of the oven.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 35
- Category: Pasta
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Italian