Quick Chèvre and Cherry Tomato Pasta

I had been cold all morning and needed something warm on this chilly day, something other than a sandwich. Plus there was the fact that we had no bread. A salad is not warming and a toasted cheese sandwich was impossible. I have goat cheese that needs to be used, cherry tomatoes in the garden, basil in a glass on the counter and I always have pasta. I thought back to a recipe I vaguely remembered and entered ingredients into google. I came up with a basic plan and the photo shows the result. It was good, warm, and quick and easy enough to have for lunch.

Chèvre and Cherry Tomato Pasta

serves 1

a handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

1 clove of garlic. finely chopped

small handful of basil leaves, sliced

crumbled

fresh goat cheese

some extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

a couple of pinches piment d'esplette, enough dry pasta, any shape, to serve one. I used linguine

Boil salted water to cook the pasta. While waiting for the water to boil and then for the pasta to cook, place tomatoes, garlic, and basel in a pasta bowl. Pour over a small amount of olive oil. This can be done as long as an hour before cooking the pasta. Crumble some goat cheese over the tomato mixture. When the pasta is cooked, drain, saving some of the water. Immediately add the pasta to the tomato mixture and toss. The cheese will melt to coat the pasta. Add some of the reserved pasta water to make the sauce formed by the melted cheese the consistency you like. Salt and pepper to taste. Add piment d'esplette to taste.

This is very rich and I ended up with more than I could possibly eat for lunch. The big eater in our household happily finished it even though he doesn't like chèvre.