Baked Tomato Pasta

I created this very simple recipe when I moved to California in 1990. As my daughters have grown up, this has always been their favorite family dish. We still make it all the time. The recipe hasn't changed much in the last 22 years.

The secret ingredient is the kind of tomatoes. They need to be a kind of tomato that bakes and caramelizes properly. Roma tomatoes work the best. Sometimes these are also called Italian plum tomatoes. I have tried others, and they require different baking times and temperatures, and sometimes aren't as sweet - so try to find Roma tomatoes.

When the tomatoes are baking, they will taste best if they are cooked just to the point of caramelizing -  they almost look like they are going to burn - then they are perfect. They will taste very sweet.

Ingredients:
- Roma tomatoes, about a dozen
- Parsley
- Garlic
- Olive Oil
- Butter
- Parmigiana cheese
- Fine, long pasta - angel hair or thin linguini

Procedure:
- Slice the tomatoes lengthwise (see picture - Anna is doing a good job on the tomatoes) and place cut side up in a baking dish
- Finely chop about 1/2 cup of parsley, chop several cloves garlic, if you like garlic, 5-6 cloves is pretty good. We usually chop a little extra garlic and save it for garlic bread.
- Season the tomatoes with salt and pepper
- Mix the parsley, a few tablespoons of oil, and garlic together. Spoon about 1/2 of the parsley-garlic-oil mixture over the cut tops of the tomatoes.
- Drizzle the tomatoes and parsley with a little extra olive oil, a few more tablespoons. 
- Bake the tomatoes with the parsley mixture in the oven at 425 degrees F about 60 minutes. Towards the end of the time, watch the tomatoes, they should be very dark, soft and caramelized. Careful, they can burn, you want to bake them right up to the point before they burn.

My Recipe Notebook from 1990!

- While the tomatoes are baking, boil the pasta - it helps to get the past done around the same time as the tomatoes so the pasta is still warm.
- Remove the tomatoes from the oven, toss in a few tablespoons of butter. Mash a couple of the tomatoes, leave a few whole, however you want it is fine.
- Toss the pasta into the tomato dish and mix thoroughly
- Toss over the remaining parsley-garlic mixture, and sprinkle on Parmigiana cheese.
- It's ready to serve!!