Pasta with Brie, Tomatoes and Basil

A few weeks ago, when my friend Alex was in town and staying with us, I stocked up my fridge with some of her favorite snacks.  One of the items that I picked up was a wedge of brie.  We never got around to eating the cheese while she was here (which is surprising because neither of us can ever pass up cheese, bread or wine) and the brie has been sitting in my fridge until I could figure out what to do with it.

Last week, I was reading one of my favorite food blogs, Framed Cooks, about some of the author's favorite cookbooks.  With the description of each cookbook, Kate also linked to a previous post where she cooked something from the cookbook.  When the first recipe, a pasta dish, included brie as an ingredient, I knew that I had to give it a try! 

On Friday, Bret and I both took some time off of work to look at the last places on our list of possible wedding venues.  While we were killing time in Ipswich, we stopped at Coastal Green Grocer and picked up some of the ingredients that we needed - tomatoes and basil.

On Saturday, I got to work on this delicious sauce.  First, I poured about half a cup of extra virgin olive oil in a bowl.

I added four minced cloves of garlic to the olive oil.

I then chopped up the four roma tomatoes into bite-sized chunks.  I made sure to spread the tomatoes out to really soak in the olive oil and garlic.

I then cut the rinds off of the brie cheese and cut the cheese into bite-sized chunks.  I left the brie in the fridge right up until I needed to chop it into chunks because the firmer the cheese, the easier it is to cut.  I added this to the bowl.

I then roughly chopped up half a bunch of basil.  The basil was so fragrant and I can't help but wonder if there is anything that smells better than basil and tomatoes together?

Finally, I added a sprinkling of fresh cracked mixed peppercorns.

Now came the easy part...waiting.  As instructed, I put a dishcloth over the bowl and let the ingredients rest together to soak up all of the different flavors.  I did this for about an hour and a half.

I then cooked up some linguine in a pot of water with salt.  When the pasta was done cooking, I drained it and quickly put it in the bowl with the sauce. 

The heat from the pasta melted the brie into a salty cheesy sauce as I gently tossed the ingredients together.  I plated the pasta in shallow pasta bowls and served it with a sprinkling of fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

I would never have thought to combine tomato, basil, brie and pasta in one dish but it really worked.  The melted brie coated the pasta almost like it was an alfredo sauce but way lighter.  The dish had a beautiful and colorful presenation.  But most of all, this is the kind of dish you serve to impress your guests even though the preparation is so simple.  I thought this was a really great way to use the brie in a savory dish.

What are some interesting ways that you use brie in your dishes?