Simple Burst Cherry Tomato Pasta

Weeknight dinner inspiration: This Burst Cherry Tomato Pasta, from @maryelouis on TikTok. 🍝 Here's how she did it:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (plus more for serving)
4 dry pints cherry or grape tomatoes
Sea salt to taste, fine grain
1 pound penne pasta
6-8 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 cup tightly packed herbs like fresh basil leaves and/or mint, chopped or torn
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions:
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When boiling, add pasta and cook to al dente per package instructions. Before draining pasta, reserve 2 cups of the starchy cooking water. This is a very important step!
- While water comes to a boil, add 1/2 cup olive oil, tomatoes & 2 teaspoons salt to a large skillet or pot (preferably with a lid). Heat pan to medium/medium-high heat. Cook tomatoes in oil for about 16-18 minutes, partially covered if using a lidded pot, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes are beginning to release liquid.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and add minced garlic and black pepper to tomatoes and stir to combine. Allow to cook for about 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Use the back of a cooking spoon to help crush the tomatoes that haven’t quite burst. You can crush all of them or leave some whole, up to you. Turn off heat, add salt to taste.
- Turn off heat and stir in chopped herbs and 1/2 cup reserved pasta cooking water. Add drained pasta to sauce and toss to combine. Add more pasta cooking water, to loosen sauce as needed. When serving, drizzle with more olive oil and garnish with fresh herbs, if desired.

[Nirvanas-dy]

I tried this and it is absolutely delicious! 😆