Roasted Tomato Bolognese and Rigatoni

Roasted Tomato Bolognese and Rigatoni

I saw this recipe on the Rachael Ray show one day and it looked so good, and it was so good. I've tried making tomato sauce for pasta from scratch a few times but never turns out quite right but this was super delicious. If you have an hour to spend making dinner you should make this. It's not a hands on hour but roasting for a half hour and simmering for a half hour. Or save this recipe for this summer when you have so many tomatoes growing in the garden that you can't keep up with them, whip up this sauce and freeze it. 

Ingrediants

3 pints cherry tomatoes

4 cloves garlic-crushed

2 Tbsp fresh thyme-stripped from stems

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

1 lb ground beef

1 small yellow onion-chopped

1 cup chicken stock

1 Tbsp parsley-dried or fresh

2 Tbsp fresh basil-chopped

1 cup milk

1 lb Rigatoni (if you can't find it spaghetti will work)

Shredded Parmesean

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with tin foil and place tomatoes, garlic and thyme on the baking sheet. Drizzle with about 4 tablespoons of olive oil and toss to coat. Bake for 30 minutes. Slide everything on the sheet into a food processor or blender and puree. 

Meanwhile, in a large sauce pan add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and beef. Season with salt and pepper and brown until cooked through. Add onions and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add stock, tomato puree, parsley, half of the basil and milk. Simmer for 30-40 minutes until thickened.

Prepare pasta according to package. Before draining reserve 1 cup of the water that the pasta was cooked in. Return pasta to the pot toss with half of the pasta water and half of the tomato sauce. Add other half of the pasta water to the tomato sauce. Let the sauce cook for another few minutes. Serve the pasta in a bowl, top with extra sauce, basil and Parmesan.