This ditalini pasta has a fantastic flavor. A delectable wonder to see is what a hot oven can do to vividly crimson San Marzano tomatoes. The creamy goat cheese, smoky oregano, and thick sauce blend perfectly with the ditalini pasta.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 25 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 40 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 (28 ounce) can whole Italian plum tomatoes (such as San Marzano)
- ½ onion, sliced
- 6 cloves garlic, crushed
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
- 2 cups cold water
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 1 (16 ounce) package ditalini pasta
- 2 tablespoons fresh goat cheese, crumbled
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
- Drizzle olive oil over the bottom of a 9×13-inch casserole dish. Pour tomatoes and their juices into the dish; cut each tomato into 3 pieces. Sprinkle in onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, and 2 teaspoons oregano; stir to combine.
- Roast in the preheated oven for 1 hour. Remove dish from oven, stir briefly, return to oven and roast for an additional 15 minutes.
- Transfer roasted tomato mixture to a saucepan; pour in water. Process mixture with an immersion blender or potato masher until desired sauce consistency is reached. Stir in 1 teaspoon oregano. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Set aside.
- Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Once water is boiling, stir in ditalini and return to a boil. Cook pasta uncovered, occasionally stirring, until pasta has cooked through but is still firm to the bite, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain well and return to pot.
- Pour tomato sauce over ditalini; stir to combine. Stir in goat cheese.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 401 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 64 g |
| Cholesterol | 2 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 12 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 207 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 11 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I don’t think this brought much to the table beyond a standard simmered sauce. There was also way too much water – I recommend adding only a little bit before blending and then adding more only if it needs it. Mine was watery and I had to simmer it down.
I was really expecting a ton more flavor after how good the kitchen smelled while roasting the tomatoes. Just didn’t wow me.
I only made the sauce and it was really good! A different approach to pasta sauce that I thought was lovely and my 6 yr old granddaughter liked it as well. I will definitely make this again.
Love it! It’s delicious… the only change I made was dried oregano instead of fresh.
This is my very favorite tomato based sauce! I’m on a low sodium diet and this recipe is low sodium and delicious. I usually double the recipe, so I’ll have extra for another use, but the family loves it so much that they just use more sauce on their pasta. I feel that the San Marzano tomatoes are important to the recipe because they have so much flavor. It works well on any pasta shape that I’ve tried it on, and the goat cheese is a nice taste kick!
I have this recipe to thank for the accomplishment of making my first ever homemade roasted tomato sauce in my adult life. I am 32 years old. This recipe is good for the sauce alone, but it also introduced me to ditalini and using goat cheese in a pasta dish. Win-win-win! I learned a ton and am so appreciative of Chef John’s super ideas. My husband dished up on a heaping pile of seconds. Will definitely make the sauce more regularly now that I understand how simple it is to accomplish!
AMAZING! i stuck to the recipe and honestly there are no changes needed,the goat cheese makes it,YUM.
This recipe is a keeper! My whole family loves it. Thanks Chef John!
Yum! I made this recipe exactly as written and it was delicious! There is a kick to it with the red pepper flakes and we enjoyed it. I added some extra crumbles of goat cheese because I like it but you don’t need to! As is it serves about 4 adults. Will make this again!
I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS RECIPE! Incredible! I absolutely loved this! I made it exactly as written. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to scrape the burned tomato into the mix, but I did and I think that’s what’s giving it the taste that I love. I made it with this recipe last night and now, this morning, I made an Italian omelette and put the sauce inside. Thanks so much Chef John! You did not disappoint!
I thought this was a good recipe! The only changes I made were to add cooked Italian sausage to the cooked pasta (my husband needs meat in everything) and I used a whole onion instead of a half. It turned out great and he loved it! It was a great use of some leftover goat cheese that I had.
Tasty and made the house smell delicious. I like my pasta a little saucier, so I might add this amount of sauce to a little less pasta next time and maybe add a bit more red pepper.
My son and hubby said this was good. I thought it was super yummy!! I doubled the recipe, use the goat chese (which I ususally don’t like) and topped it with feta.
I’m sure this is amazing the way the recipe is written, but I made a few changes because of what I had on hand that my family loved. I had tons of cherry tomatoes growing so used those instead of San Marzano. I added a diced eggplant that needed to be used to the tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, onion, red pepper flakes, and oregano. After roasting for about 15 minutes, I decided to add a 1/4 cup of dry red wine. After another 15, I decided kamalata olives would be divine and added half a cup of those. At the one hour point I added two tablespoons of grated pecorino Romano to give it some flavor and add thickness, I mashed with a potato masher and added my linguine directly from the water. I did not simmer on the stove with water, use an immersion blender, or add goat cheese because I did not have any. Because of the eggplant and Romano cheese, the sauce turned out velvety and delicious. The seeds popped in the mouth. I will definitely make it this way again.
I followed this recipe exactly with two exceptions, I left out the red pepper flakes and I used two cans of tomatoes, I increased the fresh oregano, onion and garlic to taste. It is not salty AT ALL. I mashed the mixture only slightly giving the sauce a really nice chunky texture. I adore goat cheese, for me, that was defining ingredient for this recipe. Absolute YUM!
The house smells so good when I make this sauce. I did not add any water afterwords,so it would stay nice and thick. It Makes the best pizza sauce. Awesommmeee! I have made it twice now. First time with dried oregano still awesome.the second time with all fresh herbs even more better! Thank you Chef John.
tasty sauce!
This is really really good and I will be making it again but not with the red pepper flakes because my mouth is on fire!
Wouldn’t make again. Way too spicy (red pepper flakes?). I suggest simmering sauce after adding cold water while waiting for pasta to boil.
I used the idea, and experimented a bit. To 5 lbs of fresh roma tomatoes from our garden, I added 2 large onions, 2 large green peppers, lots of fresh oregno, and a small pile of garlic (along with generous olive oil, of course)! Baked for 1hr 10 min, then left it in the oven til all the heat was dissipated. I ended up with a delicious concentrated slurry to serve as a base for our marinara. I added 2 cans of tomato sauce and simmered. We added sweet Italian sausage cut in bite-size chunks (pre-fried), plus a lb or so of pre-fried ground beef (plenty of pepper, a bit of salt). The idea of carmelizing these ingredients is genius!
Whole family loved it! I used fresh tomatoes from the garden instead of canned and it took a little bit longer to roast off all the liquid. Well worth the wait!