Pasta with Oven-Dried Tomatoes, Broccoli and Feta

It seems like everyone out there in the food blogging world is trying to make the best of their last few tomatoes. Mine are no longer good for just eating with oil, salt and basil like I usually do, and to be frank, the weather doesn’t much make me want to do that anyway.

However, when I saw this recipe for Oven-Dried Tomatoes in oil via one of my favorite foodie blogs, I knew that that was where the last of my summer cherry tomatoes were going. The recipe calls for all sorts of tomatoes, but cherry tomatoes were what I had, so that’s what I used. I also didn’t cut them in half… the recipe didn’t seem too clear on that, so I made an executive decision.

The scent of the tomatoes cooking in the house was overwhelming… so overwhelming, in fact, that I didn’t remember until two hours later (yeah, I just kept mine in there. Might have to do with the not cutting thing.) that I don’t actually like sundried tomatoes. At all. What was I thinking? I stuck them in a bowl, unceremoniously poured some oil over them, and stuck them in the fridge.

I had no idea what I was planning on doing with them until, for some reason, the combination of broccoli, feta and sundried tomatoes came to mind. I’m sure I’ve seen it on a menu somewhere, I don’t remember where, but since I always have multiple kinds of cheese and a ton of frozen veggies hanging around, I threw this meal together for lunch.

It was incredible.

And this coming from someone who usually picks sundried tomatoes out of a dish. The combination of the tomato-infused oil, the feta melting over the hot pasta, and the bright green of the broccoli made this an outstanding and filling lunch. If you don’t have tomatoes to roast your own, I suppose you could use storebought sundried, but I’m heading out to buy the slightly less-than-perfect but still not orange winter tomatoes to make a whole jar of this stuff to eat during the winter.

Pasta with Oven-Dried Tomatoes, Broccoli and Feta

 ½ cup uncooked macaroni
1 cup frozen broccoli florets
1 tsp. olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped (I used the bulb of a spring onion because I had it lying around, but a small yellow onion would be fine)
12-15 cherry tomatoes from the Oven-Dried Tomato in oil recipe
1 tbsp. feta cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper
1 tsp. dried basil

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the macaroni until al dente. Add the broccoli for the last two minutes of cooking. Drain and reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, heat the oil over high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the onion and a pinch of salt and sauté until translucent and sweet, 3-4 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the cherry tomatoes and 1-2 tsp. of the oil and stir to heat through.

Add the macaroni, broccoli, basil and salt and pepper to taste. Add about two tablespoons of the pasta cooking water if the macaroni seems dry. Add more if necessary.

Place the pasta on a plate and crumble the feta over the top while the pasta is still hot.