Cherry tomato and pepper spaghetti with crayfish

Ingredients:

15-20 Cherry tomatoes
½ A red pepper
150g-170g Cooked crayfish Tails (you can buy ones in brine)
200gm Spaghetti or Linguine
1 Clove of Garlic
1 Teaspoon of dried basil
2 Teaspoons of Olive oil
1 Table spoon of Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and black pepper

Preparation:

Pre heat your oven to gas mark 6 or about 200°C
Put on a the stove a large pan of water and bring to the boil. Once the water is boiling add a good helping of salt.
Halve your red peppers, remove any of the seeds and white membrane & flatten by just squashing with the palm of your hand.
Place in a microwaveable bag or container with a splash of water and microwave for 2 minutes. (This just softens the pepper and speeds up the cooking process). Remove and drain off any excess water.
Into a roasting dish place the cherry tomatoes and red peppers (when finished) and sprinkle with dried basil, finely chopped garlic, 1 teaspoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of Balsamic vinegar. Season with Salt and black pepper.
Put the tomatoes and peppers into the top shelf of the oven for 15 minutes
Now add the Linguine or spaghetti to the boiling water and cook for approx 9-10 minutes if you like it al-dente (a bit of a bite), or about 12 minutes if you like it a bit softer.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain and drizzle with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss so that all the pasta gets a thin coating of oil.
Remove the tomatoes and peppers from the oven and pour into the pan that you have cooked the pasta in, making sure you get all the juices and herbs.
With a masher, crush the tomatoes and peppers and return to the pan on a medium heat.
Add the Crayfish tails and stir for 1 minute.
Add the pasta to the tomato sauce and mix well.
Serve into warm bowls

Notes:

Ladies and Gentleman, may I please introduce Chef Andy Hunting, our guest chef who has very kindly donated this recipe to Chef?s Tales Blog. Chef Andy has informed me that this wonderful dish goes very well with hot crispy garlic bread, or just a plain and simple dressed green salad is also suitable. We would like to thank Chef Andy for donating this lovely dish and hope that all our readers are equally impressed. Well done Chef Hunting!!

Happy Cooking everyone!