A quick and easy pasta dish, this Blistered Tomato and Mascarpone Pasta comes together with a creamy tomato mascarpone sauce.
Sometimes dishes show up on our dinner table for the sole purpose of using up stuff in my fridge. In this case, I had a part carton of mascarpone in desperate need of a destination. Mascarpone is not cheap and I wasn’t going to be wasting it. I also had some arugula. And a few tomatoes. So dinner was decided and it was delicious!
This is a quick and easy pasta dish that comes together in about the time it takes to boil water and cook the pasta. The tomatoes are quickly “blistered” by broiling in the oven. This only takes a few minutes. Angelhair pasta boils up in about 5 minutes, so it’s quick, too. It all comes together in a hot skillet with the mascarpone and arugula for a quick toss to coat the pasta.
Don’t worry if you don’t happen to have some left-over mascarpone to use up. I’ve included a quick and easy substitute, that used cream cheese, cream and sour cream. You’ll find it at the bottom of the recipe. As for the tomatoes, I happened to have roma tomatoes, but any tomato will do, including a carton of cherry tomatoes (would be pretty with red and yellow cherry tomatoes!)
Cook’s Notes for Blistered Tomato and Mascarpone Pasta
The secret to this dish is salt and pepper. You need to season this dish well to really round out the flavours!
Blistered Tomato, Arugula and Mascarpone Pasta
Ingredients
- 3 servings angel hair or thin spaghetti pasta
- 4 roma tomatoes (or 3 regular tomatoes, or a carton of cherry tomatoes, if you like).
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 Tbsp vodka optional
- 1/2 cup mascarpone* see substitution below
- 2 handfuls baby arugula
- Shaved Parmesan
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
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Preheat your oven broiler with a rack in the upper part of the oven. Cut tomatoes in half and scoop out the seeds and discard. Place tomatoes on a baking sheet, skin side up, and place under the broiler. Allow tomatoes to cook until skin is blistered and starting to char.
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Meanwhile, boil a large pot of salted water for pasta.
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Once tomatoes are charred, allow to cool slightly, then coarsely chop. Set aside.
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In a large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring, until tender and fragrant. Add chopped tomatoes and vodka, if using. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to low, while you put the pasta on to cook. (If using angelhair pasta, it will take only a few minutes to cook!).
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Once pasta is cooked, increase heat on skillet to medium. Add mascarpone, arugula and a good sprinkling of salt and freshly ground pepper. Remove pasta straight from boiling water to skillet with tongs. Toss to combine, adding a splash of pasta water if needed, to loosen. Remove from heat and stir in some shavings of Parmesan. Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve garnished with additional shaved Parmesan.
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*Substitute for the mascarpone in this recipe: 4 oz. (1/2 cucream cheese blended with 2 Tbsp. heavy cream and 1 Tbsp. sour cream.
I made this pasta for dinner 3 days ago and it was delicious ! all the flavours blended together so well, it looked really good (Italian flag food !) and though I feared the mascarpone would make the dish sort of heavy, that didn’t happen at all. Now I’ll only have to make it again when we have a pepper mill that actually works and we can be *really* generous with the pepper — we did our best but we have to hit and shake and hit and hit and shake the mill a billion times before it agrees to give us like half a teaspoon of pepper so … Thank you for the recipe !
So glad you enjoyed it, Aimelle!
This is my kind of recipe – I could eat this everyday! Pinned!
Thanks so much, Tricia. Me, too :)
This pasta is the ultimate comfort food! I could eat it every day of the week!
Thanks Julia and me, too! :)
Oh I love when a “clean out the fridge” meal turns into a show stopper. This looks great, Jennifer! I just love mascarpone. Glad it didn’t go to waste!
Thanks Liz. I’ve had some of my best meals from cleaning out the fridge!
I’m not sure that what’s in my fridge would end up anywhere near as delicious as this. It looks wonderful!
Thanks Chris. Having mascarpone to use up is always a good thing :)
I want to devour everything you make, Jennifer…this is so simple and incredibly delicious looking. I love what you say about the salt and pepper, it’s so true!
Thanks Sue. It took me years to learn the secrets of a good salt and peppering :)
This is pasta perfection, what could be better than blistered tomatoes with mascarpone?!
Thanks Laura :)
Such a stunning dish! I love arugula and just happen to have some mascarpone in the fridge waiting to be used, so I think this definitely needs to happen.
Thanks Alexandra. The mascarpone was great in the pasta. Lovely and creamy!
This is beautiful – some of my favorite creations are ones where you are trying to use up odds and ends in your fridge. I always seem to have arugula around too! Beautiful photos Jennifer!
Thanks so much, Jessica. It was a great combination of flavours!
This is something I can so see on my family’s dinner table. Sending this recipe to my mom and sister now!
Thanks for sharing, Sarah :) It was delicious!
Oh my goodness, this looks incredible!! I love the idea of adding arugula – totally making this soon.
Thanks Meghan!