Pasta with Goat Cheese, Tomatoes, and Crispy Garlic for the Table

I had the pleasure of meeting the cook back in October 2015 at the then-called Food Blog University conference (now Blog Life University) in Cancun. It was an memorable and educational event – and I got to make friends with some reliable bloggers.

I grew up in the Boston area and was raised by loud, food-loving Greeks. My parents owned a restaurant for 25 years, which is where I learned and practiced making food from a young age. I’d say it’s why I have such a strong connection to food in general – especially Greek and Mediterranean food! I could talk about it all day.

In lieu of paragraphs to tell you more about myself, here’s a list of fun facts:

• I live with my life partner, Jason, and our cat, Nermal.
• Even though I have a cat, I’m actually more of a dog person. I technically have a dog, but she stays with my parents. Her name is Lily.
• I’m a former video game developer. I recently made a career switch to be more involved with food!
• Video games are my regular pastime.
• The beach is one of my regular places and I could never live more than an hour’s drive away from the coast because of it.
• I don’t have a regular food because Worth keeping too many things to pick only one.
• I once did a dance routine “for” Usher. This may have something to do with my previous video game career. Bonus fact: It was his dance routine.
• I don’t share much of it on the internet, but I write poetry and song lyrics, and I’ve dabbled a bit on performing in public.
• Performing on stage makes me a little nervous, but public speaking is beyond terrifying to me.
• I know how to swim, but I’m pretty terrible at it.

You can learn more silly things about me over at my blog! Now, let’s talk about some good food, shall we?

When the cook and I first discussed this guest post, I knew immediately which recipe I wanted to share: Pasta with goat cheese, tomatoes, and crispy garlic. This dish is made with only a handful of ingredients and it’s full of flavor. I used tomatoes and basil from my container garden.????

The “secret” to this pasta dish is infusing some olive oil with smashed garlic cloves. You can do this by cooking the garlic in the oil over low heat until it becomes crisp and golden. Then, set it aside to cool slightly and mince up that crispy garlic to top the pasta with before eating. I loooove garlic-infused oil and find myself making it more often than not these days. Another recipe I use it in is this puff pastry pizza (*coughshamelessplugcough*).

I also like to add the tomatoes to the colander before draining the pasta; this will allow the steam from the pasta to soften the tomatoes a bit and will essentially save you some time on the cooking front.

Saving time cooking is great because that leaves more time for eating!

It’s no secret that goat cheese, tomatoes, garlic, and basil pair so well together. The crispy garlic adds a bit of subtle depth. Also, I recommend topping with a sprinkle of Romano cheese to add simply a little more oomph.