7:30 Sharp · Dinner card

Roasted Tomato & Goat Cheese Pasta

7:30

Pink, creamy pasta with collapsed cherry tomatoes and soft garlic looks like the kind of thing that needs a sauce recipe and a whisk. The sauce makes itself in the oven at 6:30 while you do the dishes; the goat cheese melts into it at 8:06 with a splash of pasta water. The only thing you cook with your hands is a pot of water.

Cost for two

$20

Active

15 min

Hands off at

7:20

Allergens

Milk (goat cheese), Wheat (rigatoni)

Shopping list · aisle order

Produce

2 pints Cherry or grape tomatoes
1 head Garlic
1 clamshell Fresh basil

Dairy & Cheese

1 log Plain goat cheese

Pantry & Canned

1 box Rigatoni
1 jar Red pepper flakes

Pantry (you probably have these)

Salt, pepper, olive oil

Gear

One baking dish (9×13 or similar — the sauce collects in it), one big pot with a lid, a colander, a mug, foil, a fork, a phone timer. No thermometer.

The 7:30 Timeline

5:30	T-120	Unpack. Read this whole page once.
6:15	T-75	Tomatoes into the baking dish, whole. 6 garlic cloves smashed flat, skins off, in with them. Turn the oven to 425°F.
6:20	T-70	Over the dish: 3 tablespoons oil, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper flakes. Shake the dish to coat.
6:30	T-60	Dish in, middle rack. Timer: 30 min.
6:45	T-45	Dishes done, counters wiped. Starter and spritz done.
7:00	T-30	Timer goes. Pull the dish: tomatoes split and slumped, juice pooling. Oven OFF. Foil over the dish. Leave it on the stovetop.
7:05	T-25	Pot: two-thirds full of water, 1 tablespoon salt, lid on, on the stove — burner OFF. Pasta box, mug, and colander next to it. Basil: 15 leaves onto a saucer.
7:10	T-20	Shower.
7:20	T-10	Hands off from here. Music on, lights down, table set. Two wide bowls out with the goat cheese (still in the fridge until 8:06) and the basil saucer nearby.
7:25	T-5	Apron off, apartment check, spritz pitcher and glasses out.
7:30	T-0	She arrives. She arrives. Nothing on the stove needs you. The pot is cold and the oven is off. Pour the spritz.
7:40	T+10	Oven to 300°F. Slide the foil-covered tomato dish back in to rewarm. Two buttons.
7:45	T+15	Starter out. Burner under the pot to high, lid on. The spritz and the starter cover you while it boils.
7:55	T+25	Lid rattling, water rolling: pasta in. Stir once with the fork. Lid off. Timer: box time minus 1 minute (usually 10).
8:05	T+35	Timer goes. Dip the mug into the pot and scoop out a mug of the cloudy water FIRST. Then drain the pasta in the colander.
8:06	T+36	Pull the tomato dish. Pasta into the dish. Crumble the goat cheese over. Pour in half the mug of water. Stir 30 seconds — it turns pink and creamy.
8:10	T+40	Tear the basil over. Plate (see Plating). Serve.

Roasted Tomato & Goat Cheese Pasta · Method

1Put both pints of tomatoes into the baking dish, whole. Do not cut them.
2Smash 6 garlic cloves flat with the side of a knife, pull off the skins, and drop them in among the tomatoes.
3Turn the oven to 425°F with the rack in the middle.
4Pour 3 tablespoons olive oil over the dish, then 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes. Hold the dish with both hands and shake it side to side until every tomato is shiny.
5Slide the dish onto the middle rack and set a 30-minute timer.
6At the timer, the tomatoes should be split open and slumped with red juice pooling in the corners of the dish, and the garlic soft and golden. Not there yet? 8 more minutes. Turn the oven off, lay foil over the dish, and leave it on the stovetop.
7Fill the big pot two-thirds with water, add 1 tablespoon of salt, put the lid on, and set it on a burner with the burner off. Put the pasta box, a mug, and the colander next to it so nothing needs finding later.
8Pull 15 basil leaves off the stems onto a saucer and leave them out.
9At 7:40, turn the oven to 300°F and slide the foil-covered tomato dish back in. It rewarms while the water heats; it does not need you.
10At 7:45, turn the burner under the pot to high with the lid on.
11When the lid rattles and the water is rolling — around 7:55 — take the lid off, pour in 10 oz of rigatoni (two-thirds of the box), and stir once with the fork so nothing sticks. Set the timer for the box time minus one minute.
12At the timer, scoop a full mug of the cloudy pasta water out of the pot before you do anything else. That water is the sauce's other half.
13Pour the pot into the colander in the sink. Shake it twice.
14Pull the tomato dish with oven mitts. Tip the drained pasta into it.
15Unwrap the goat cheese and crumble the whole log over the pasta with your fingers.
16Pour in half the mug of pasta water. Stir with the fork for 30 seconds, mashing some tomatoes as you go, until the cheese disappears and everything is coated in a pale pink sauce. Too thick? More water from the mug, a splash at a time.
17Tear the basil leaves over the dish with your hands. Plate.

Is it done? No experience needed

No temperature needed. Pasta: at the timer, fish one piece out with the fork and bite it. It should be soft with the smallest firmness in the very center. Soft all the way through is also fine. Tomatoes: done when most have split their skins and are slumped with juice pooling in the dish. Nothing here can be under-cooked in a way that is unsafe — under-done pasta is chewy, not dangerous.

The #1 way to screw it up

You drained the pasta, forgot the mug, and now the goat cheese is a dry, clumpy paste stuck to the rigatoni instead of a sauce.

Recovery

Run the tap as hot as it goes, put ⅓ cup of hot water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the dish, and stir for a full minute. The cheese loosens and coats. It will not be quite as silky as the pasta-water version, and it will still be pink, creamy, and a good dinner. If you have a kettle, use kettle water instead of tap.

Plating

Use two wide, shallow bowls and lift the pasta in with a big spoon so the tomatoes and garlic come with it rather than staying at the bottom of the dish. Spoon any pink sauce left in the dish over the top of each bowl. Finish with torn basil, a crack of black pepper, a small pinch of pepper flakes, and a thin ring of olive oil around the edge of the pasta where it meets the bowl.

Vegetarian swap

Vegetarian as written. ASSUMPTION: most supermarket goat cheese logs use microbial rennet; check the label if it matters to her. To add meat: tear 4 slices of prosciutto over the bowls at the end, uncooked, or crumble a cooked Italian sausage from sausage-roasted-grapes-polenta into the dish at 8:06.

What to pour

Wine. a Sauvignon Blanc — Kim Crawford, about $14; goat cheese and Sauvignon Blanc is the classic pairing and it is not close.

Beer. Pilsner Urquell.

No alcohol. Spindrift lemon, or sparkling water with a torn basil leaf and a squeeze of lemon.

The practice run. Cook this once on a weeknight for yourself before the real night. Twenty dollars of groceries buys you the one thing the card can't: having done it before. 730sharp.com