Blistered Tomato Pasta with Mascarpone

This blistered tomato pasta with mascarpone comes together quickly and easily, for a perfect weeknight meal.

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. Angel hair 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.

Ingredients and Substitutions

Mascarpone – Don’t worry if you don’t happen to have some leftover mascarpone to use up. I’ve included a quick and easy substitute, that uses cream cheese, cream and sour cream. You’ll find it at the bottom of the Recipe Card. You could also use crème fraîche if you have some on hand.

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!)

Arugula – I love arugula and almost always have it on hand, but baby spinach would work well here, too.

Cook’s Notes

The secret to this dish is salt and pepper. You need to season this dish well to really round out the flavours! Take the time to taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning, as needed, as well.

If you sauce thickens or tightens up during this last short cooking, add a splash of your pasta cooking water to loosen it up.

To make sure I don’t dirty another pan, I always start my sauce in a large enough skillet or pot so that it will comfortably hold my cooked pasta as well, when it is cooked and ready to be added to the pot.

My Three Top Tips for Delicious Pasta Dishes

My pasta dish cooking technique has evolved over the years, to include a couple of techniques that I think produce the most satisfying pasta dishes …

1. Be sure to generously salt your pasta cooking water, to bring lots of flavour to your finished dish. It’s adequately salted when it “tastes like the ocean”.
2. Rather than draining pasta in the sink, I scoop the cooked pasta right out of the boiling water with a spider strainer (or tongs, for long pasta) and put it directly into the hot sauce. Adding hot pasta to the sauce helps the pasta to absorb the flavours of the sauce more easily. It also allows for having the pasta-cooking water handy, in case you need to add some to thin your pasta sauce. Be sure to still drain the pasta well in the spoon before adding to the pasta, to avoid watering down your sauce.
3. I always cook the pasta with the sauce in a hot skillet (or saucepan) for several minutes before serving. I’ve found that the perfect pasta dish needs to come together in a hot pan first, not in the serving bowl.

Bonus Tip!

For tomato-heavy sauces, stirring a small pat of butter into the tomato sauce at the end of cooking tempers the acidity in the sauce and rounds out the flavours.

Get the Recipe: Blistered Tomato Pasta with Mascarpone

A quick, easy and delicious pasta dish, that's perfect for a weeknight meal. With tomatoes, arugula, angel hair pasta and mascarpone.

5 stars from 2 ratings

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Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 10 minutes mins

Total Time: 20 minutes mins

Yield: 3 servings

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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 Tablespoon olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon vodka, optional
• 1/2 cup mascarpone , or crème frâiche *see substitution in Notes below
• 2 handfuls baby arugula
• Shaved Parmesan
• Salt and pepper

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Instructions

 

• 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.
• Meanwhile, boil a large pot of salted water for pasta.
• Once tomatoes are charred, allow to cool slightly, then coarsely chop. Set aside.
• In a large skillet, heat the 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 angel hair pasta, it will take only a few minutes to cook!).
• 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 additional hot pasta water if needed, to loosen the sauce. 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.

Notes

*Substitute for the mascarpone in this recipe: 4 oz. (1/2 cup cream cheese blended with 2 Tbsp. heavy cream and 1 Tbsp. sour cream.

Be sure to read the “Ingredient and Cook’s Notes” (above the recipe card!), where I share more detailed  tips, variations and substitution suggestions for this recipe!

Cuisine: American, Canadian

Course: Main Course

Author: Jennifer Maloney

Serving: 1serving, Calories: 451kcal, Carbohydrates: 47g, Protein: 11g, Fat: 22g, Saturated Fat: 11g, Cholesterol: 37mg, Sodium: 32mg, Potassium: 382mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 3g, Vitamin A: 1530IU, Vitamin C: 14.3mg, Calcium: 99mg, Iron: 1.2mg

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