If you find yourself short on time, but still want a homemade dinner, this pasta sauce is so easy, and completely adaptable to your schedule. If you need to have a longer gap, reduce the oven temperature and increase the time, the end result will be almost identical, whilst giving you the flexibility you need to do your work, or exercise, or pick the kids up from school or in my case, walk the dog.
Cooking tomatoes in this way actually increases their lycopene content as the cells in the walls of the tomatoes have time to break down and release the lycopene, making it more bioavailable to our bodies. Lycopene is a type of antioxidant that can help protect our bodies from oxidative damage. Pairing it with a healthy fat, such as extra virgin olive oil as I have done here, can again help improve absorption rates as it’s fat soluble. Therefore, this is a delicious way to get some extra lycopene in your diet to help benefit your body.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 300g tomatoes, any size but larger ones will need to be cut into large chunks about cherry tomato sized
- 1 head of garlic, top sliced off to expose the cloves
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 125g mascarpone
- 300g pasta of choice
- 240g baby leaf spinach*
- 15g basil
- Parmesan to serve
Method
- Add the tomatoes and garlic to an ovenproof dish where it all fits snugly, and drizzle over the olive oil. Cook in an oven set to 150°C fan for 1.5 hours.
- Once cooked, squeeze the garlic out of the skins and mash into the tomatoes with the mascarpone and season to taste with pepper.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook your pasta for 4 minutes less than the cooking time.
- Drain, reserving a large mug of pasta water and return to the pan with a little pasta water, but not all. Add the spinach and stir in, cooking over a low heat for 2 minutes till the spinach has wilted. Remove from the heat.
- Add the pasta sauce and basil and stir to combine, using a little extra pasta water if needed to loosen the sauce.
- Serve with parmesan over the top.
*other suitable veg include swiss chard, broccoli, kale, or try roasting other veg at the same time as the tomatoes such as courgettes, peppers or aubergine.