Jesse and I have been trying to stock up on delicious summer foods for the winter. We've been making pickles, various pestos, fermenting cabbage and summer squash into kimchi and sauerkraut, freezing tomatoes, etc. I recently found a recipe in a friend's cookbook for roasted cherry tomatoes that I love! We've been making big batches and freezing some and leaving some in the fridge to put on snacks or in meals. So far I've used them in eggs, mixed in biscuit batter (tasted like sun dried tomato biscuits! yum!), on toast, and in pasta always in combination with some basil or basil pesto.

This is what the pasta looked like, just ours had more pesto! Photo cred: http://sharedappetite.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IMG_0298-4.jpg

The pasta just about blew my mind. So simple! But added so much flavor. Here's the recipe for tomatoes (from memory!)

Ingredients:

Pint of cherry tomatoes (for a quart double recipe!)

1/4 cup olive oil

pinch salt

1 tbsp sugar (optional!)

Preheat oven to 350 Farenheit. Half the cherry tomatoes and place in a baking dish. Mix the olive oil, salt, and sugar (optional). Combine the olive oil, salt and sugar mixture with the tomatoes (I just use a spoon to mix and make sure the tomatoes are all coated). Pop in the oven for about an hour (I always check at 45 min to make sure they're good. The more blackened they are the more like candy they taste!! yum!). Take out and use immediately or store in fridge using remaining olive oil from the dish. Or use in pasta with this pesto:

Ingredients (this is from foodnetwork.com with some of my own comments thrown in there)

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts or roasted almonds or pepitas or toasted sunflower seeds or toasted pecans, etc.
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese or parmegianno or romano or no cheese (recipes don't usually tell you that you have a choice!)

Combine the basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor (I don't own a food processor and I use an immersion blender. If you don't have one and you cook a lot of veggies, get one!!! ) and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add 1/2 cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

If using immediately, add all the remaining oil and pulse until smooth. Transfer the pesto to a large serving bowl and mix in the cheese.

If freezing, transfer to an air-tight container and drizzle remaining oil over the top. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and stir in cheese.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/basil-pesto-recipe2.html#lightbox-recipe-video?oc=linkback

For the pasta, just make pasta! Whatever kind! When it's done combine with a couple of tbspoons of pesto and the tomatoes! Garnish with parmegianno and a basil leaf and eat it!

Also, who needs just one cup of pesto? Not me! I freeze a ton of it so that there's plenty all winter. I will do a Lizzie's pesto ideas blog post next time. Perhaps with pictures of experimental pestos we've made! Also, we're featuring a sale on bulk basil for buying clubbers if you'd like to stock your freezer with basil pesto, too. Click here to purchase.

Simple Cherry Tomato and Pesto Pasta