Tagliatelle with cumin-roasted cherry tomatoes

Recipe from The Essential Low-Fat Cookbook by Antony Worrall Thompson (Kyle Books, 2012)

Serves 4

• 1 lb cherry tomatoes, halved
• spray of olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• flakes
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 12 oz dried tagliatelle
• 6 basil leaves, torn
• handful of baby spinach leaves

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Arrange the cherry tomatoes, cut-side up, on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Spray the tomatoes with a mist of olive oil, then scatter with the chopped garlic and chili flakes and sprinkle with the seeds. Place in the preheated oven for about 1 hour, or until the tomatoes have slightly shriveled, but not become too brown.

Toward the halfway stage of the tomatoes cooking, start thinking about the pasta by bringing a large pan of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta 10 minutes before the tomatoes are ready, stir for a couple of minutes, then cook until al dente-which is about 1 minute less than the manufacturer recommends.

Remove the tomatoes from the oven and tip them, with any juices, into a frying pan. Drain the pasta using a pasta ladle, then ladle onto the tomatoes with a little of the cooking water. Carefully place the basil and spinach on top of the pasta, and continue to toss or turn over the pasta until the spinach has wilted. You're bound to lose a few leaves to the
stove top, so you may prefer to add the spinach little by little.

Season to taste and serve immediately.

Tip

You may be tempted to use sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil. Don't! It's cheating; they don't taste as good, and in any case they're saturated in olive oil.

Per serving
317 cals
3.1g fat
0.5g saturated fat
4.9g sugar
4.8g fiber
0.3g salt
0.8g fat per 100g

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