Sweet Cherry Tomato and Sausage Pasta Bake

I never used to be a fan of pasta bakes - in actual fact, the first one I'd ever had was at a friend's house when I was twelve, so they were quite an alien thing to me for a while. I just always found that the pasta would be over cooked and mushy, and I've never been convinced by the mixture of sweetcorn, cheese and fish. Hmm. 

Yet here we are, and this is something undeniably and incredibly delicious, whose pasta has been salvaged by only briefly cooking it first so that it resembles far more the slightly al dente pasta that I love. 

The fact that my mother and I enjoyed this meal so much is another testament to its deliciousness - because, though we can't get enough of sweet, stewed tomatoes and such robust and flavourful herbs, neither of us particularly like sausages. Toad in the hole is not something I tend to go near, and pigs in blankets stay at the other end of the table on Christmas Day... yet the sticky, golden sausages just seemed to go perfectly and I wouldn't have had this pasta bake any other way.

I don't know what else it will take for me to convince you to try it - it takes a while baking but so little of it is hands on that you can get on with work while you wait, and is one of the simplest things yet gives such satisfying results. (The crispy bits on top are particularly good, and a nice extra that you don't get with your everyday boiled pasta.) 

Go on. You know you want to try it. 

Sweet Cherry Tomato and Sausage Pasta Bake

Serves: 2

• 10 mins prep 
• Roughly 1 hour 20 mins cooking 

Ingredients:

• 1 kg lovely ripe cherry tomatoes , mixed colours if you can find them
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• 1 sprig fresh bay
• 1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 large clove of garlic , peeled and chopped
• 6 higher-welfare Cumberland or coarse Italian pork sausages
• extra virgin olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 150g wholewheat mix of pasta and spaghetti (we liked fusilli, penne, farfalle and spaghetti) 
• 200ml passata
• 30g each of a good strong cheddar and Parmesan 
• Basil, to serve 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5. Get an appropriately sized roasting tray, large enough to take the tomatoes in one snug-fitting layer. Put in all your tomatoes, the herb sprigs, oregano, garlic and sausages. Drizzle well with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Toss together, then make sure the sausages are on top and pop the tray into the oven for half an hour. After this time, give it a shake and turn the sausages over. Put back into the oven for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how golden and sticky you like your sausages.
2. Once it’s cooked, you’ll have an intense, tomatoey sauce. Meanwhile, cook your pasta in boiling water for half the time recommended on the packet (5-6 minutes, I recommend; if you're not using wholewheat I would suggest a few minutes more if you don't like al dente). Heat your oven to 180c/160c fan. 
3. Drain the pasta. Remove the sausages from the stew and slice half into rounds. Mix these rounds and the pasta into the tomato stew, check the seasoning and then transfer into a large ovenproof dish. If it looks too dry, stir in the passants until it looks sufficiently moist - this will be absorbed by the pasta while it bakes. 
4. Arrange the rest of the sausages on top and then grate over the cheeses. Bake for 10 minutes and if you have a fan oven, for the last five heat the grill. After ten minutes, pop under the grill so that the top can crisp up. Then leave to cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving with basil and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. 

Recipe adapted from Jamie Oliver's Sausage and Cherry Tomato Stew