The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Take a break from holiday fanfare with a simple pasta supper
If you celebrate Christmas, and your family is anything like mine, by the time Dec. 26 rolls around, you’re ready for a simple meal with little fanfare and perhaps a smaller dining table.
Enter: a short-of sheet-pan pasta dinner. It likely doesn’t taste anything like the holiday fare you’ve been eating for the past few days, but it’s still comforting enough to satisfy on a winter evening.
Most of the cooking is done in a 450-degree oven on a sheet tray filled with a couple pints of cherry tomatoes and 1-inch pieces of Italian sausage (hot and mild are both good here). Within 15 minutes, the tomatoes will burst and the sausage will render its fat and brown, forming something of a sauce with which to coat the pasta.
I like to use pre-made, refrigerated linguine pasta, which you can find in either the deli section or the cheese section of most grocery stores. Feel free to use just about any fresh pasta you can find. Toss it in salted boiling water once the sheet pan comes out of the oven — the pasta will only take a couple of minutes to cook. Drain it and transfer it directly to the sheet pan and let it mingle together with the sauce. (This is, in fact, the only trick; if you cook the pasta too far in advance, it’ll clump up and become difficult to combine with the tomatosausage mixture.)
To finish, sprinkle everything with a generous halfcup of chopped fresh parsley, plus lemon zest and juice for brightness. I like to serve the dish with a salad on the side, but if you’d rather keep things as easy as possible, the pasta alone will suffice.
LINGUINE WITH ROASTED CHERRY TOMATOES AND SAUSAGE 2 pints cherry tomatoes 12 ounces hot or mild Italian sausage, removed from its casings or purchased in bulk Extra-virgin olive oil, for the
tomatoes and sausage Salt and freshly ground
black pepper
1 pound refrigerated or frozen fresh linguine pasta
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley 1 lemon
On the side: Baby green
salad
Heat the oven to 450 degrees.
While the oven is heating, spread the tomatoes out on a rimmed baking sheet. Break off 1-inch pieces of sausage and distribute evenly between the tomatoes on the baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat. Season lightly with salt.
Transfer to the oven and roast until the tomatoes begin to break down and the sausage is browned and cooked through, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
When the tomatoes and sausage are finished cooking, remove the baking sheet from the oven but leave the tomato-sausage mixture on the baking sheet. Add the linguine to the boiling water and cook just until tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Drain well and immediately transfer to the baking sheet. Toss to coat evenly in the tomato juice and rendered sausage fat.
Sprinkle with the parsley and zest the lemon over the top. Stir well. Halve the lemon and add its juice to taste, along with salt and pepper. Serve from the baking sheet with a salad on the side. Serves 4 to 6.
Per serving, based on 4: 570 calories (percent of calories from fat, 55), 21 grams protein, 44 grams carbohydrates, 5 grams fiber, 35 grams fat (11 grams saturated), 65 milligrams cholesterol, 935 milligrams sodium.