Cheesy Penne with Tomatoes & Olives

Recipe Creator: www.epicurious.com

If a bite of this doesn’t taste like a day in the Italian sun, we don’t know what will. Use fresh Italian plum (Roma) tomatoes, if you can.

Ingredients

  • 6 tbsp Olive oil
  • 1 ½ cups Onion, chopped
  • 1 tsp Garlic, minced
  • 3 28-oz Canned Italian plum tomatoes, drained
  • 2 tsp Dried basil
  • 1½ tsp Dried crushed red pepper
  • 2 cups Chicken or vegetable stock
  • 1 lb Penne or rigatoni pasta
  • 2½ cups Bothwell Monterey Jack, grated
  • ⅓ cup Kalamata olives, sliced & pitted
  • ¼ cup Fresh basil, finely chopped

Directions

  1. Heat 3 tbsp of the oil in a heavy saucepan over medium high heat.
  2. Add onion and garlic; sauté for 5 minutes.
  3. Mix in tomatoes, dried basil and crushed red pepper.
  4. Bring to a boil. Add stock and simmer until mixture is reduced to 6 cups, approximately 1 hour.
  5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  6. Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender. Drain well.
  7. Return pasta to pot and toss with 3 tbsp oil.
  8. Pour 1/2 to 2/3 of the sauce over pasta, add cheese and toss to blend.
  9. Refrigerate or freeze remaining sauce for future use.
  10. Transfer pasta to 13x9x2 inch greased glass baking dish.
  11. Sprinkle with olives. Bake until pasta is heated through, about 30 minutes.
  12. Sprinkle with basil.
Notes