Baked Boursin and Tomato Pasta
Baked Boursin and tomato pasta uses just 5 ingredients and cooks in under 20 minutes for a delicious and easy weeknight dinner.
One of the easiest ways to get my kids to eat veggies is to hide them in a creamy pasta dish.
This delicious and creamy baked Boursin and tomato pasta starts in a baking dish and can be used alongside your favorite short pasta.
I added cherry tomatoes and baby spinach to our bowls but if you have fresh zucchini, yellow squash, or bell peppers, they'd work inside this recipe, too!
Why This is the Best Recipe
I love to make a quick and easy pasta dish for a busy night, I think this is the best baked Boursin and tomato pasta recipe because:
- Just 5 Ingredients: The super-short list of ingredients keeps this so easy to prep.
- Budget-Friendly: Our favorite jarred tomato sauce is about $9 at the store but the fresh tomatoes are usually just $4.
- Meatless but Has Protein: I love that this is a vegetarian-friendly dish but still has a good boost of protein from the Boursin cheese and even more if I use cheese tortellini.
Ingredients
All you need to make this simple recipe is:
- Boursin Cheese: I buy the 3-pack from Costco that comes with the Garlic and Herbs flavor and the Shallot and Chive flavor. I've used both in this recipe and they are each delicious. You'll find Boursin in the specialty cheese section of your grocery store.
- Fresh Cherry Tomatoes: You could use grape tomatoes or any small salad-sized tomatoes you can find at the market. A mix of red and yellow tomatoes would be a fun variation if you find them.
- Baby Spinach
- Short Pasta Shape: You could use something like penne, farfalle, rigatoni, etc. I happened to have some leftover cheese tortellini in the fridge which made this even quicker to prep.
- Olive Oil
- Garlic Salt
NOTE: On the day I made this for the photos, I only had 1 pint of tomatoes on hand. The recipe worked just fine but 2 pints, as the recipe card at the bottom calls for, makes it even more tomato-y and I highly recommend that ratio.
Want to Save This for Later?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Fresh or Leftover Pasta
The wonderful thing about this quick-prep dinner is that you can make a fresh pot of pasta and just boil it while the tomatoes are roasting or you can use leftover pasta from the fridge.
We just happened to have a dish of leftover cheese tortellini that my daughter had boiled the night before when we had company over. We cooked extra so we wouldn't run out of food for our guests but ended up not needing the second batch.
This was an excellent recipe for using up the remaining tortellini so nothing went to waste.
Prep the Baking Dish
Rinse the cherry tomatoes and add them to a 9x13-inch baking dish.
Unwrap the Boursin cheese and place it in the center of the tomatoes.
Drizzle the olive oil over the top and stir the tomatoes to coat. Sprinkle the garlic salt, salt and pepper over the top.
Baking Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Bake the dish of tomatoes and Boursin for 15 - 20 minutes or until the tomato skins have burst and the flesh of the tomatoes is very, very soft.
The Boursin cheese will begin to toast and get golden brown, this is normal don't worry. However, if the tomatoes end up needing a bit more time and your cheese is starting to look too dark, you can loosely cover the dish with aluminum foil to prevent additional browning.
Finish the Sauce
Use the back of a slotted spoon to gently crush the tomatoes right in the baking dish.
Be a little careful, once they burst the juices are quite hot and can make a splattery mess if you squish them too hard.
Stir the melted Boursin into the tomato juices, they'll combine quite easily but it will look a little chunky with bits of tomato.
Stir in the baby spinach, the heat from the sauce will begin to melt it.
If you have freshly boiled pasta, you might wish to combine the pasta and sauce in the empty pasta pot.
If you use leftover pasta like I did when I made this, you might wish to combine the pasta in the baking dish and use the oven to help warm everything through. I warmed the tortellini up in the microwave for 2 minutes first so it wasn't refrigerator-cold when I added it to the sauce, but I stirred the pasta and sauce together and put the dish back in the oven for 2 minutes to warm through.
Variations
You could use this simple roasting method to make endless variations on this recipe.
Add More Veggies: As long as you chop them up small enough to roast in the 15 - 20 minutes time frame, you could add chunks of bell peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, onions, or carrots to the baking dish. If you wanted to add some frozen peas or corn, you could stir them in with the baby spinach.
Add Meat: This dish would go really well with a wide variety of simple meats stirred in like cooked chicken, shrimp, or sausage.
Add Heat: If you like things a little more spicy, add a sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes or a pinch of cayenne.
Serving Suggestions
This easy dinner took just 20 minutes for me to make, start to finish. It was a complete "one pot" meal on a super-busy night.
It tastes best served fresh from the baking dish the night you make it, I wouldn't recommend making it ahead.
However, if we'd had a little more time I might have added a batch of garlic bread or my copycat Olive Garden garden salad.
My meat-loving husband would have been thrilled if I had made some broiled chicken tenderloins seasoned with Italian seasoning for chopping up and sprinkling over the top.
Personally, I think some spiced Air Fryer shrimp would have been delicious, too.
More Easy Pasta Dishes
Looking for more quick fix dinners? You'll love these easy recipes:
📖 Recipe
Baked Boursin and Tomato Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 pints grape or cherry tomatoes
- 1 (5.3 oz) Boursin cheese round we used garlic and fine herbs
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 pound short pasta shape like penne or farfalle, or 20 oz of your favorite tortellini flavor
- 2 cups baby spinach
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Set a large pasta pot filled with water over high heat and bring to a boil.
- Place the tomatoes in a 9x13-inch baking dish. Nestle the Boursin cheese round in the center. Drizzle the tomatoes with olive oil and sprinkle the garlic salt and pepper over the top. Give a gentle stir to coat evenly.
- Bake the dish for 15 - 20 minutes or until the tomato skins have burst and they are quite soft.
- Gently crush the roasted tomatoes with the back of your cooking spoon, be careful they will squirt if you press too hard. Stir the tomato juices into the softened cheese. The sauce will be slightly chunky with tomato pieces but the cheese should melt right in.
- Add the baby spinach and gently stir it into the tomatoes. You can pop the dish back into the oven for 1 - 2 minutes to wilt the spinach if you want to speed that process up.
- While the tomatoes are roasting, cook your pasta according to the package directions. Drain the pasta and set aside.
- Combine the pasta with the prepared sauce right in the baking dish or transfer the sauce to the empty pasta pot and toss the pasta there. The pot makes it easier to stir with less spilling on your stovetop.
- Serve the pasta immediately.
Save This Recipe to Your Recipe Box
Find this delicious recipe next time you visit by saving it to your very own recipe box on my site. All your favorites stored in one easy place!
Comments
No Comments