Roasted Campari Tomatoes

The other day I was at the store and saw this wonderful package of Campari tomatoes. I couldn't resist so I put them in my basket and decided I'd figure out what to make with them later.

Then last night I roasted a chicken for dinner and decided that just plain roasted tomatoes sounded great and refreshing to me. So I simply lined a sheet pan with heavy duty foil, rinsed and sliced each tomato in half through the stem, and laid them cut side up on the foil lined sheet pan, drizzling them lightly with extra-virgin olive oil.



I then took a head of garlic and smashed down on it with a knife so that the cloves would all separate. With skins still on I scattered the garlic cloves throughout the pan interspersing them around all the cut tomatoes. I then seasoned them with salt and pepper and put them in a 450 oven for 20-25 minutes.



This is the finished product. Although it doesn't look like the most beautiful dish, the flavor is amazing. It was perfect with the chicken and will be great on a sandwich with the leftover roasted chicken and grilled with some cheese. YUM!

This recipe is simple and delicious! If you like tomatoes I recommend you try it.

Fregola Sarda with Roasted Vegetables

I guess it must be that my craving for so many veggies lately is the fact that the warm weather is here and I just don't feel like eating anything heavy. I also didn't feel like going grocery shopping since I'd been running all day taking care of business. So when I got home I looked in the refrigerator and saw an abundance of vegetables. I knew if I didn't do something with them soon they would end up going bad. I hated the thought of throwing them away.

So I decided to cut up in cubes and strips most of the veggies I had. They consisted of eggplant, roma tomatoes, asparagus and butternut squash. I also had some Fregola Sarda that I thought would go great with these roasted vegetables.



What is Fregola Sarda? Well,it's toasted breadcrumb-like pasta from the island of Sardinia that is touted for having special health benefits. Plus they say you can indulge in this pasta without the typical carb and calorie overload. Although the carbs appear to be in line with all the others I looked at.

Fregola Sarda has a special kind of dietary fiber called resistant starch that helps maintain blood sugar and improves digestion...plus each serving has 6 grams of protein.

Fregare means "to rub," and this fregola pasta is made by rubbing coarse semolina pasta and water together to create crumbs. The crumbs are then toasted, which imparts a rich, earthy flavor to the pasta. The pasta is cooked a little like rice, with an excessive amount of water that is allowed to evaporate during the cooking process. It's really delicious!

So I cut up my veggies, tossed some extra-virgin olive oil on them and roasted all but the cut tomatoes in a convection oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. I then added my tomatoes to the batch for another 5 minutes.

By this time my Fregola Sarda was done so I drained it, placed some on a plate and covered them with my roasted veggies. Carefully using my microplane I grated some fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano over all. Mmmmm it was heavenly. I love the nutty taste of the Fregola with the vegetables. It was just what I was in the mood for. Light, healthy and delicious!

So if you're in the mood for something and also don't feel like running to the grocery store, just look in your refrigerator and pantry. Be creative and come up with something with the ingredients you have on hand. You might surprise yourself how inventive you are!