Off Duty Chef: Proper tomato penne pasta

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 10 high quality, ripe tomatoes (San Marzano)
• 1 whole head of garlic
• 8 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp dried chilli flakes
• Sea salt
• 320g penne pasta
• 80g parmesan cheese, grated
• Handful basil leaves

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 120c, line 1 large oven tray with tinfoil.
2. To make the sauce, begin by halving your tomatoes and placing flat side up on the lined tray, find space on there for the whole garlic bulb as well.
3. Place the olive oil, tomato paste, sugar, chilli flakes and salt in a bowl and whisk until incorporated, season heavily with sea salt.
4. Pour this dressing over the tomatoes on both trays. Cook in the oven for 4 hours until the tomatoes become leathery in texture and reduce in size.
5. Once the tomatoes are like this, place a heavy based saucepan filled with water on the heat. Season with sea salt and bring to the boil. Drop the penne and cook for 10-12 mins until just soft.
6. While the pasta is cooking, get your tomatoes into a blender along with all the oil and juices from the tray. Using a serrated knife, carefully remove the base (thicker end) of the garlic bulb, gently squeeze out all the roasted garlic pulp into the blender. Blend to a smooth and thick puree and adjust the seasoning with salt. This will keep for a few days in the fridge and also freezes well.
7. Now to the pasta, once cooked, strain off the water keeping a small amount remaining in the pot, add in your tomato pasta and mix with the pasta water over a medium heat until a smooth sauce coats the pasta.
8. Get your grated parmesan in at this point and remove the pot from the heat. Mix with a spoon until the cheese melts and coats the pasta. Serve in warm bowls with some basil leaves.