Linguine with Marinated Tomatoes
There was a restaurant in downtown Columbia, MO called The Pasta Factory. It had one of our favorite pasta dishes on their menu. It was a cold blend of tomatoes and other things served over warm pasta.
Now the restaurant has moved out of downtown, to the west side. The menu available online has a dish called, “Chilled Tomatoes and Herbs”. The description says, “Marinade of fresh tomatoes, onion, olives, capers and garlic in a basil vinaigrette, served on a bed of warm linguine.”
After 20 years, this recipe remains on their menu. I guess we aren’t the only ones who love it.
Needless to say, the restaurant didn’t give us their recipe. This was developed through trial and error. But during fresh tomato season we still make it weekly. If there is some of the marinade left over, it makes a great bruschetta.
A note about the Parmesan. I used to mix the cheese into the tomato mixture. The problem occurs if you have leftovers that you will hold for a few days and maybe use for another application. The cheese doesn’t hold up as well as the tomatoes. It gets soggy. That is why I have changed the instructions to put the cheese on top of the plated dish.
Yield: 4 servings
Time: marinate tomatoes for 1-8 hours
Ingredients:
8 Roma tomatoes
1 sm onion, chopped finely
1 cup green olives
1 tsp minced garlic, use fresh or from a jar
1 jar capers
1 btl Kraft oil free Italian Dressing
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
10 oz linguine, uncooked
Instructions:
Chop tomatoes and onions. Mix in olives, garlic and capers. Pour enough dressing over all to wet everything thoroughly. Marinade for at least 1 hour and up to eight.
Cook linguine. Serve cold marinated tomatoes over warm linguine and sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top.