Spicy Pasta with Harissa

A spicy pasta with caramelized onions was on my long short list since a couple of weeks. I'm very fond of sweet and hearty caramelized onions so it looked to me like a splendid thing to cook. In the end it wasn't so much the onions that made the real difference after all but the simple spoon of harissa paste I added in an instant moment of lyric weakness.

Result: it is such a lovely pasta dish! My husband even told me to write that 'he ate it all'. So that's the cure for a small stomach then! Never mind, I could eat this harissa pasta every week myself. All I can say is: PLEASE TRY!

Spicy Pasta with Harissa

Ingredients for 2 persons

1 lb (450 g) pasta
9 oz (250 g) cherry tomatoes
2 white onions, sliced
1 tsp dried red chili flakes
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 tbsp harissa paste
1 tbsp pine nuts
olive oil
salt

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half. Place them on an oven tray and drizzle with a little olive oil. Season with a pinch of salt. Roast the tomatoes in a preheated oven at 302°F (150°C) for 45 minutes. Heat some olive oil in a pan and add the sliced onions. Cook them over medium to low heat for about 30 minutes until they start to caramelize nicely. Add the dried red chili flakes and gently stir in the spicy harissa paste. Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan for 3 minutes. Remove the pan and pour the nuts on a plate. Let them cool down. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until tender and drain. Add 6 tbsp of the hot pasta water to the onion mixture and stir in the pasta. Put the pasta onto deep plates. Top with the roasted cherry tomato and the remaining onion sauce.

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