Sauted Penne Pasta with Grape Tomatoes and Garlic

This recipe is one of my own and is a fantastic, quick pasta dish for lunch or dinner. It is rich in flavor, of course, yet relatively healthy. I make this dish just about every week, no joke. The great thing about it is that you can change the amounts of ingredients to your liking, and it will still come out delicious. Its definitely a "this and that" kind of dish.

Sauted Penne Pasta with Grape Tomatoes and Garlic:

The Recipe:

Penne pasta or any small pasta like fusilli, bowtie, wheels, rigatoni, etc.

1 1/2 Tbsp Regular Olive Oil

1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

About a cup of grape tomatoes

1/2 yellow onion

3-5 garlic cloves

1/2 lemon

Block of cheese to shave. Romano or Parmesan.

1 tsp Balsamic vinegar

A few shakes of dried basil, or a few shreds of fresh basil

A pinch of cayenne pepper

Kosher Salt

Pepper

OPTIONAL- 1-2 Tbsp Butter

The Procedure:

1. Boil water in a medium pasta pot and cook pasta until al dente, then drain and set aside. Cook your pasta while completing the rest of the recipe. This will save time.

*secret: salt your pasta and add a little olive oil to prevent it from foaming over.

2. Slice onions and garlic thin and half the tomatoes. Set aside.

3. In a medium size nonstick frying pan, pour in the regular olive oil and heat to medium-high heat.

* secret: you can tell when the oil is hot enough if you see "waves" in the bottom of the pan or by testing a few drops of water in the pan to see if it sizzles.

4. Add the onions and tomatoes and season with Kosher Salt, then the reduce heat to medium-low.

5. Cover the pan for about 2-3 minutes and stir.

6. Once onions are translucent and tomatoes are soft and puckered, squish the back of the tomatoes with a large wooden spoon until the juices come out. This creates a sort of sauce.

7. OPTIONAL STEP- add butter

8. Add the garlic and stir to coat pieces

9. Cover the pan for about another 2 minutes and stir.

10. Take your half lemon, and drizzle the juices into the pan. Add as much as you like. I usually find 1 good, hard squeeze to be enough.

11. Add the extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and cooked pasta to the pan.

12. Add basil, cayenne pepper, season with salt and pepper, and stir to coat everything.

13. Cover for 2 minutes and serve immediately.

Shave as much cheese as you like onto top of pasta and Enjoy!