Burst Tomato Pasta with Garlic Confit

Some pasta dishes need a long ingredient list to get your attention. This one absolutely does not.

 

There’s something very satisfying about letting cherry tomatoes do most of the work.

Once they hit a hot pan and start blistering, they soften, split and release all that sweet juice into the olive oil.

Then you add soft garlic confit and suddenly the sauce tastes like it has been cooking for far longer than it actually has.

The rigatoni is especially good here because those ridges grab onto the tomatoey oil, while little bits of garlic and softened tomato tuck themselves into the tubes.

White beans add a creamy bite throughout the bowl, and fresh basil keeps everything from becoming too rich.

I also like that this pasta isn’t swimming in sauce.

It’s glossy, chunky and a little rustic, with plenty of burst tomatoes still visible rather than cooked down into a completely smooth tomato sauce.

That’s exactly the texture you can see in the photo, so that’s what we’re aiming for.

 

Ingredients

This serves 4.

For the garlic confit

• 1 whole garlic bulb, cloves peeled
• 120ml extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme, optional
• Pinch of sea salt

For the pasta

• 350g rigatoni
• 500g cherry tomatoes
• 1 x 400g tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• ½ teaspoon chilli flakes
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon sea salt, plus more for the pasta water
• 6 to 8 garlic confit cloves
• 3 tablespoons garlic confit oil
• 60ml reserved pasta water, plus more if needed
• Small handful fresh basil leaves
• 2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan or vegetarian hard cheese, optional
• Extra chilli flakes, for finishing

Make the Garlic Confit

Garlic confit sounds fancy.

It isn’t.

You’re basically cooking garlic very slowly in olive oil until the cloves become soft, sweet and almost spreadable.

The only thing you really need to watch is the heat.

You don’t want the garlic sizzling hard or browning quickly.

• Add the peeled garlic cloves to a small saucepan.
• Pour over enough olive oil to cover them.
• Add the thyme and a small pinch of salt.
• Place the pan over the lowest heat.
• Cook very gently for 25 to 35 minutes.
• Turn the cloves occasionally.

They should become pale golden and completely soft.

If they start frying aggressively, lower the heat.

Once cooked, remove the pan from the heat and leave the garlic to cool slightly in the oil.

You’ll use both the cloves and the flavoured oil in the pasta.

And yes, the oil is absolutely worth keeping.

It tastes far too good to throw away.

Cook the Rigatoni

Bring a large saucepan of generously salted water to the boil.

Add the rigatoni and cook until just al dente.

Check the packet timing, but start tasting it about a minute before the suggested cooking time.

The pasta is going back into the tomato pan later, so you don’t want it completely soft at this stage.

Before draining, scoop out around 250ml of pasta water.

You probably won’t need all of it.

Still, the one time you forget to save pasta water is always the time the sauce desperately needs it.

Drain the rigatoni and set it aside.

Burst the Cherry Tomatoes

Use a large frying pan or sauté pan so the tomatoes have room to sit against the surface.

If they’re piled on top of each other, they steam.

We want blistered edges.

• Heat 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil over medium-high heat.
• Add the cherry tomatoes.
• Sprinkle over the sea salt and black pepper.
• Leave them mostly undisturbed for 3 to 4 minutes.

You should start seeing darker roasted-looking patches on the skins.

• Stir the tomatoes.
• Cook for another 5 to 7 minutes.
• Press a few gently with the back of a wooden spoon once they start softening.

Don’t crush every tomato.

Some should completely burst into the sauce, while others should stay partly intact.

That mixture of jammy tomatoes and whole blistered ones is what gives the finished pasta its texture.

Add the Garlic Confit

Once the tomatoes are soft and juicy, lower the heat to medium.

• Add 6 to 8 garlic confit cloves.
• Mash them gently into the tomato juices.
• Pour in 3 tablespoons of the garlic confit oil.
• Add the chilli flakes and dried oregano.
• Stir everything together.

The garlic should almost disappear into the sauce.

You may still see the odd little piece, but you shouldn’t have huge whole cloves sitting around unless you particularly want them.

Let everything cook for another 2 minutes.

By now, you should have a chunky, glossy tomato mixture sitting in plenty of garlicky oil.

It will look slightly too concentrated.

That’s where the pasta water comes in.

Add the White Beans

The beans go in near the end because they’re already cooked.

They only need enough time to warm through.

• Add the drained cannellini beans.
• Stir gently so they don’t break apart.
• Cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

I like cannellini beans here because they’re creamy without being mushy.

They also match the pale white beans visible throughout the pasta in the photo.

Butter beans would work too, but they’re larger and would change the look of the dish quite a bit.

Toss Everything Together

Add the cooked rigatoni straight into the tomato mixture.

• Pour in about 60ml reserved pasta water.
• Toss the pasta through the sauce over medium heat.
• Add a little more pasta water if the pan looks dry.
• Keep tossing for 1 to 2 minutes.

This is where the olive oil, tomato juices and starchy pasta water come together.

You don’t want a watery sauce sitting at the bottom of the pan.

The liquid should turn glossy and cling to the rigatoni.

If you’re using Parmesan, add it now and toss again.

It will melt into the sauce and make everything slightly richer.

The pasta in the photo looks glossy rather than creamy, though, so keep the cheese light.

Add the Basil Last

Fresh basil does not need ten minutes in a hot pan.

It turns dark and sad very quickly.

• Tear or roughly chop most of the basil.
• Stir it through the pasta once the heat is off.
• Keep a few whole leaves for the top.

Taste the pasta.

Add another pinch of sea salt if it needs it.

A little extra chilli is good too, especially if your tomatoes are very sweet.

 

What the Sauce Should Look Like

This is important.

The sauce should coat the rigatoni rather than drown it.

You want glossy tomato juices clinging to the pasta, with little pieces of collapsed cherry tomato tucked between the tubes.

Some tomatoes should still be visibly whole or halved.

The beans should stay mostly intact.

And there should be enough garlic oil around everything to make the pasta shiny without leaving a greasy puddle in the bowl.

If it looks dry, add pasta water one tablespoon at a time.

If it looks watery, keep tossing it over medium heat for another minute.

It usually comes together very quickly.

How to Serve It

Spoon the pasta into a wide bowl while it’s still hot.

Make sure everyone gets plenty of those burst tomatoes and white beans.

Then finish with:

• Fresh basil leaves
• A pinch of chilli flakes
• Freshly ground black pepper
• A tiny drizzle of garlic confit oil
• Parmesan, if using

I wouldn’t add much more than that.

There’s already plenty of flavour going on.

A giant handful of cheese or a flood of extra oil would cover up the sweet tomatoes and garlic.

Can I Use Regular Garlic Instead?

Yes.

If you don’t want to make garlic confit, finely slice 4 garlic cloves and cook them gently in olive oil before adding the tomatoes.

It will still be very good.

It just won’t have quite the same soft, sweet garlic flavour.

Garlic confit loses much of that sharp raw edge and becomes almost buttery.

That’s why it works so well in a simple pasta like this.

Which Tomatoes Work Best?

Cherry or baby plum tomatoes are ideal.

They have enough sweetness to turn jammy without releasing an enormous amount of water.

Use tomatoes that are properly ripe.

This recipe has nowhere for bland tomatoes to hide.

A mixture of red and darker cherry tomatoes would also look lovely.

Just avoid chopping large watery tomatoes into cubes and expecting the same result.

They tend to give you more liquid and less of that lovely blistered texture.

Can I Make It Vegan?

Very easily.

The main pasta is already vegan as long as you leave out the regular Parmesan.

Use a vegan Parmesan-style cheese if you want that salty finish.

You could also skip the cheese completely.

The beans and garlic confit give the sauce enough richness on their own.

A Few Things I Wouldn’t Skip

Salt the pasta water properly.

The pasta itself needs seasoning, especially because the sauce is so simple.

Let the tomatoes blister before you start stirring them around.

That slightly charred flavour makes a huge difference.

And don’t pour away the garlic confit oil.

That oil is basically liquid gold by the time the garlic has finished cooking.

A few spoonfuls in the sauce give the whole dish its deep garlicky flavour without making it harsh.

Finally, don’t overcook the pasta.

Rigatoni should still have a little bite.

Between the soft tomatoes, creamy beans and silky sauce, you need that bit of firmness.

Final Thoughts

This is exactly the kind of pasta I want when I’m craving something tomatoey but don’t particularly want a heavy red sauce.

It tastes fresh, but still comforting.

The tomatoes are sweet and jammy.

The garlic is soft and mellow.

The beans make it filling enough to count as dinner.

And every now and then you get a rigatoni tube full of garlicky tomato sauce, which is arguably the main reason to use rigatoni in the first place.

Add basil, an extra pinch of chilli and maybe a little more sea salt at the table.

Then leave the pan somewhere within reach.

Someone will absolutely go back for more.