Ina inspired

This dish is a take on one of Ina's awesome recipes.  She has a recipe called "Summer Garden Pasta" in the Barefoot Contessa book "At Home" on page 121.  It's a non-cook tomato sauce with tons of basil and parmesan cheese over thin pasta.  She featured it on a recent episode of her show and I thought it looked fantastic and had to make it.  It's definitely a summer dish though because that's when the tomatoes and basil are at their peaks.  However, the day I wanted to make it, I wanted more flavor and more veggies included.  So, I changed the recipe by adding more ingredients and baked it so the tomatoes were roasted and caramelized.  In short, it was excellent.  I'm sure that hers is wonderful too, but I just changed it to make it my own. 

The trick with this dish is that the pasta should marinate in the sauce for at least 4-6 hours.  It totally changes the flavor of the pasta and infuses it with so much flavor that my husband was amazed that pasta could taste like this.  Prepare it early in the day and bake it off just before serving.  You won't be disappointed.
(serves 2-4)
1 small onion, diced
1-2 cups portabello mushrooms, sliced
4-6 large cloves of garlic, minced (I like things really garlicky, so I added 6, but you can less if you want)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (more if your pasta is dry)
2 pints cherry tomatoes, cut in half
16 large leaves of basil, julienned
crushed red pepper
salt/pepper to taste
1/2 pound angel hair pasta
parmesan cheese

Heat a medium skillet to medium high, add onion cook until softened and slightly browned
Add mushrooms and cook until just softened
Add garlic and cook another 30 seconds until the garlic is not raw
Turn heat off and stir in olive oil, tomatoes, basil, crushed red pepper (as much as you like), salt, and pepper to taste
Stir together and set aside
Cook pasta until al dente (do not overcook)
Add pasta to sauce and toss
Allow mixture to marinate for 4-6 hours (however, if you don't have time, either marinate it as long as you can or not at all)
Add mixture to over proof glass dish and sprinkle the top generously with parmesan cheese
Bake at 400 for about 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and the pasta is browned
Serve with extra parmesan cheese and enjoy!

What's better to follow up this pretty elegant meal than with a rice crispy treat?  For some reason, I'm making tons of variations of rice crispy treats using various cereals, mix ins, marshmallows, and candies.  This time I used Peanut Butter Captain Crunch cereal, chocolate marshmallows, Reese's Pieces, and M&Ms.  They were quite tasty and a good end to a great meal.