Boursin pasta with roasted cherry tomatoes
- Preparation 10 min
- Cooking 25 min
- Servings 4 to 6
- Freezing Yes, but the texture changes after thawing
Ads
🍝 The viral recipe I tweaked my way
Everybody saw it go by. That famous Boursin pasta with roasted cherry tomatoes that blew up on TikTok and refuses to die. When I spot a viral dish that actually looks good, I make it my mission to cook it and make it better. My version runs on seven ingredients and one baking dish. Whole cherry tomatoes roasted until they burst, a silky garlic and herb Boursin sauce, and al dente pasta that grabs onto all of it.
🧀 Garlic and herb Boursin. The cheese of my life
The old saying goes « bread, wine, and Boursin ». There’s a reason this cheese got its own motto. Garlic and herb Boursin is honestly one of my favourite cheeses on earth. In a recipe or just spread on bread, it’s incredible. It’s the one you want here. The other flavours work (shallot and chive, pepper), but garlic and herb is what gives the signature taste everybody is chasing. If you love it as much as I do, go see my creamy Boursin orzo with Italian sausages and artichokes.
⚡ The ultimate improvised dinner
This is THE recipe you make when you get home late with hungry people. You toss the cherry tomatoes in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil, boil your pasta while they roast, then mash everything with the block of Boursin. Thirty-five minutes start to finish, ten of them actual work. On a January Tuesday at minus twenty, it saves the evening. And in the summer, with garden tomatoes coming out of the oven still steaming, it’s even better. Nobody ever said creamy was a winter thing.
Ads
Ads
🍅 Whole cherry tomatoes, never cut
My absolute secret: I never cut my tomatoes in half. Whole cherry or grape tomatoes, tossed in olive oil with salt, into the oven at 425 °F (220 °C) for 25 minutes. The skin holds the juice in long enough for the sugar to concentrate inside, and they burst in your mouth like little bombs when you bite down. Cut them in half and you just get ordinary tomato sauce. If they aren’t caramelized enough at 25 minutes, give them 5 more.
🍝 Penne, rigatoni or fusilli. Always al dente
Penne is my favourite here because the tubes fill up with sauce, but rigatoni, fusilli or rotini all do the job. Whatever you pick, pull it a minute before the package says. It keeps cooking in the hot sauce and you want that bit of bite left. Overcooked pasta drinks the sauce and leaves you with mush.
🧊 The golden trick: pasta water ice cubes
Always reserve 1 cup (250 ml) of cooking water before draining. Not half a cup, a full cup. That water is loaded with starch, and it’s the difference between a sauce that clumps and one that coats every noodle. My trick: freeze what’s left in an ice cube tray, then move the cubes to a bag in the freezer. Next time a sauce is too thick, thaw one cube and you’re done. It works for plenty of other recipes too.
📅 Make ahead: the mise en place, not the dish
If you’re having people over, prep the components instead of the whole dish. That morning or the night before: chop the red onion, measure the Italian seasoning, wash and dry the tomatoes, pull the Boursin out of the fridge half an hour ahead so it melts faster. Everything in labelled containers. When guests arrive you just dump the containers into the baking dish and turn on the oven. The house smells like roasting tomatoes while you’re talking, and you look like a chef without spending the night at the stove.
❄️ Storing, freezing and reheating
Leftovers keep 3 to 5 days in the fridge in an airtight container. You can freeze it, but I’ll be straight with you: the texture will most likely change once it thaws. A fresh cheese sauce breaks a little and cooked pasta softens. For reheating, this is where the pasta water cube earns its keep. A Boursin sauce stiffens in the fridge because the fat sets, and a melted cube of starchy water loosens it over low heat without watering it down the way tap water would.
🍟 Air fryer version: what goes in, what stays on the stove
The air fryer does not cook the pasta. Ever. It replaces one step only, the oven step, the tomatoes. Put the whole cherry tomatoes with the oil, salt and seasoning in the basket at 400 °F for 12 to 15 minutes, and meanwhile your water comes to a boil on the stovetop like always. When the tomatoes come out, pour them screaming hot over the unwrapped Boursin sitting in a big bowl, mash, and the cheese melts on its own. Essential tip: put an air fryer parchment liner in the basket, otherwise the oil and tomato juice run into the appliance and cleanup is a war.
🥬 Spinach, salmon, chicken: the versions people ask for
Two handfuls of baby spinach stirred into the hot tomatoes right out of the oven wilt in about thirty seconds and cut the richness nicely. Salmon works too: a fillet roasted on the side at the same 425 °F for 12 to 14 minutes, then flaked into the pasta at the very end so it doesn’t fall apart. Sliced grilled chicken, oven-crisped prosciutto, pan-fried Italian sausage or crumbled bacon all pair beautifully with the creaminess of the Boursin.
🫙 No Boursin? Three swaps that hold up
If you’re out and you don’t feel like going back out, use fresh goat cheese, herbed cream cheese, or mascarpone with grated garlic and fresh herbs. It’s not the same, nothing beats real Boursin, but the sauce stays creamy and dinner is saved.
✅ What to serve with my Boursin pasta with roasted cherry tomatoes?
It’s rich and creamy, so you want freshness or crunch alongside. An arugula parmesan salad gives the perfect contrast with its bitterness. For a heartier meal, a cheesy garlic bread to mop the bottom of the dish, some classic bruschetta to start, or a grilled Caesar salad for crunch.
Ads
Boursin and roasted tomato pasta
- 150 g (5.3 oz) Boursin garlic and herb cheese
- 1 pint (2 cups / 500 ml) whole cherry tomatoes
- 1/4 red onion, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (7.5 ml) Italian seasoning
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- Olive oil
- 1 lb (454 g) penne
Ads
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 425 °F (220 °C).
- In a baking dish, place the unwrapped cheese in the centre of the dish. Around it, add the whole tomatoes, the onion, the Italian seasoning, season with salt and pepper, then add a good drizzle of olive oil. Toss the tomatoes. Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes, stirring halfway through. Remove from the oven and mix everything together, crushing the tomatoes.
- In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook the pasta al dente according to package directions. Reserve 1 cup (250 ml) of cooking water and drain. Pour into the tomato mixture, add a bit of cooking water to taste, mix and serve!
Absolutely, and it’s one of the easiest sauces there is. Boursin is a fresh cheese loaded with cream, so it doesn’t need a roux or a splash of heavy cream to turn into a sauce. You put the unwrapped block in a baking dish, roast it with the tomatoes at 425 °F, then mash it into the hot pasta with a little starchy cooking water. That’s the whole method. The classic garlic and herb flavour is the one to use. Shallot and chive works too, but skip pepper or fig and walnut, they fight the sweetness of the roasted tomatoes.
Two things, and only one of them is the cheese. Boursin is already an emulsion of cream and fresh cheese, so it melts smooth instead of splitting like a hard cheese would. The other half is the pasta cooking water. Reserve a full cup (250 ml) before draining. That starch is what binds the melted fat to the water and turns it into a sauce that coats every noodle instead of pooling at the bottom of the bowl. Skip the pasta water and you get a greasy, clumpy mess. It’s not a small detail.
Short shapes with ridges or hollows. Penne is my go-to because the tubes fill with sauce and every bite comes loaded. Rigatoni is even better if you like a bigger mouthful, and fusilli or rotini trap the sauce in their twists. Anything smooth and long, like spaghetti or linguine, lets a thick creamy sauce slide right off. Whatever shape you pick, cook it a minute shy of the package time. It finishes in the hot sauce and you keep the bite.
Yes, and this is my version of it. The baked feta pasta trend on TikTok got swapped for Boursin, and the whole thing took off because it’s one dish, seven ingredients and almost no technique. What I changed: the tomatoes stay whole instead of halved, so they roast into little caramelized bombs rather than collapsing into sauce, and the oven goes to 425 °F instead of the usual 400 °F to get real colour in 25 minutes. Same idea, better result.
Both work. They’re the two variations people ask about the most. For spinach, stir two big handfuls of baby spinach into the tomatoes the second they come out of the oven. The residual heat wilts them in about thirty seconds and the green cuts the richness. For salmon, roast a fillet alongside the tomatoes at the same 425 °F for 12 to 14 minutes, then flake it in at the very end so it stays in chunks. Add it earlier and you’ll stir it into shreds.
Ahead, yes, in two parts. The roasted tomatoes keep 3 to 5 days in the fridge and the Boursin sauce reheats over low heat. The assembled dish does not keep well: the pasta drinks the sauce and turns pasty. As for freezing, you can, but the texture will most likely change once it thaws. A fresh cheese sauce breaks a little and cooked pasta softens. Freeze the roasted tomatoes on their own instead. They come back beautifully and you cook fresh pasta the day you want it.
I buy two at a time. Here’s most of what I do with them. My creamy Boursin orzo with Italian sausages and artichokes is the direct cousin of this pasta. For a weeknight, chicken thighs with Boursin and prosciutto cook on a single sheet pan. As a starter, Boursin stuffed mushrooms with pecans always go first, and the beet and Boursin cheese tart looks like far more work than it is. On the side, Boursin garlic and herb mashed potatoes ruined every other mash for me. At lunch, the grilled striploin sandwich with Boursin and caramelized onions. And in the morning, scrambled eggs with mushrooms and Boursin cheese.
Boursin pasta is rich and creamy, so you want something bringing freshness or crunch alongside. An arugula parmesan salad provides the perfect contrast with its slight bitterness. For a heartier meal, a cheesy garlic bread to mop up the sauce, some classic bruschetta as an appetizer, or a grilled Caesar salad round out the meal without stealing the show.
Ads
Ads
Ads
Ads
Ads