Penne in tomato-basil sauce, au gratin

This is the pasta I (or most Italians) do on a regular basis when we don't have any special idea on what to cook, hehe. This is the way I do it. This time I however cooked it au gratin at the end with readily grated regular cheese and parmesan on top. Yum!

Ingredients (x3):
270 g penne (I prefer my penne rigate and integrali)
2 cloves garlic
1 big onion
5 tomatoes
70 g tomato sauce
2 tablespoons white vinegar or apple vinegar
a tiny pinch of dried peperoncino
pepper
salt
olive oil
grated cheese
grated parmesan
basil (fresh or dry)

Preparation:
Cook the pasta in salted water. Grind the garlic and chop the onion quite fine. Peel the tomatoes and remove their insides. Cut the tomatoes into sticks. Fry the garlic and onion on a pan with olive oil, and when they have gained a little bit of colour, add the tomatoes. Add salt and pepper plus a tiny bit of peperoncino. Pour in the 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Cook on heavy heat for some 2-3 minutes and then lower the heat by half. Add the tomato sauce and cook for 6-8 minutes still. At the end add the basil.
Mix the pasta and the sauce together and pour it on an oven baking plate. Add some regular cheese and parmesan on top.
Bake in the oven set to the gratin function for 10 minutes.

Spaghetti with zucchini and garlic

I actually find tagliatelle to be even more suitable for this, but this time I made it with spaghetti (integrali). You can prepare this dish in less than 20 minutes, so it's great for when you can't take a long time to cook. But no matter of situation it is a tasty, simple dish and heavenly for garlic lovers.

Ingredients (x2):
125 g tagliatelle or spaghetti
1 zucchina
3-4 cloves garlic
basil (fresh or dry)
salt
black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
15 g margarine
parmesan

Preparation:
Put the pasta to boil. Grind the garlic. Grate the zucchina. Fry the garlic on a pan and when it has obtained some colour, pour the grated zucchina on the pan and fry it for max. 2 minutes at high heat. Add salt, black pepper and basil into the vegetables. Add the margarine. Blend the ready pasta with the sauce and serve with grated parmesan or parmesan flakes.

Cherry tomato pasta cooked au gratin

This dish is extremely easy to make (provided that you've got a grill function in your oven.) and has very simple ingredients. And it is very tasty because of the few but well-chosen ingredients that really get into their element first in the gratin oven and then in regular oven!

Ingredients (x4):
400 g short pasta
300-400 g cherry tomatoes
3-4 cloves garlic
bread crumbs
basil (fresh or dry)
grated parmesan
salt
olive oil

Preparation:
Heat up the oven to 200 c using the grill function. Wash the cherry tomatoes and cut them in half. Put olive oil on the bottom and sides of a baking pan and put the cherry tomatoes in it, so that they cover the surface of the baking pan. Dust on the tomatoes some salt, grinded garlic, basil in pieces, a somewhat abundant amount of parmesan and bread crumbs. At the end add olive oil on the pan the way that the food gets to gratinate properly. Start the oven and cook the pasta meanwhile. In 15 minutes the cherry tomatoes should be gratinated and the pasta ready. Once you have removed the water from the ready pasta, pour the pasta into the baking pan and mix it with the sauce. Put it still in the oven for 5-10 minutes.