Oven Roasted Tomatoes With Pasta

4 medium to large tomatoes

3/4 cups of bread crumbs

3/4 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese

4 cloves of garlic, finely minced

1 tablespoon butter

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

Dash of ground cayenne pepper

Approximately 16 ounces pasta of choice, cooked according to package directions

1-2 tablespoon freshly chopped flat leaf parsley

Olive oil to coat skillet and drizzle over tomatoes prior to baking

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Turn tomatoes upside down (stem side up), and cut off the stem in slices until seeds are exposed. Scoop out seeds and core of the tomatoes. (Save top slices of tomatoes for chopping and adding to bread crumb mixture.)

In a small saucepan or skillet greased with olive oil, lightly sauté the chopped garlic until soft. Add the reserved tomato bits, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Cook until tomatoes are soft and the juice from the tomatoes has cooked out. Add the butter to the pan and let it melt. Transfer the mixture into a small bowl and stir a few times until it cools. Add the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese, stirring until the mixture is fully incorporated.

Fill the tomatoes with the mixture and pack in holes. Fill tomatoes with the balance of the filling.

Place tomatoes in oven proof dish, (a muffin tin works well to bake tomatoes which don’t sit up in dish), and sprinkle on more Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle with olive oil and bake for 45 minutes. Serve with cooked pasta garnished with the seasoned drippings from the roasting pan and the chopped flat leaf parsley. Serves 4.

CATHERINE WATTIGNY is an Iberia Parish school nurse and past award winner of The Daily Iberian / Cajun Sugar Co-op Cajun Creole Cookoff.