Tomato & Chickpea Pasta with Goat Cheese
This easy pasta recipe features cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, goat cheese, olives and basil! It's bursting with fresh Mediterranean flavors.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 30, 2024
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This wholesome tomato pasta recipe makes a wonderful weeknight dinner! This feel-good recipe is warm, comforting, and lightly creamy, but not heavy.
It’s bursting with Mediterranean flavors—roasted cherry tomatoes, hearty chickpeas, creamy goat cheese, pops of briny olives, and garlic. Each one benefits from the heat of the oven, and the end result is just fantastic.
I love how this recipe comes together and I think you will, too. Basically, we’ll cook the pasta on the stovetop and roast the remaining ingredients in one baking dish. Stir it all together, add fresh basil, and you’re ready to eat. You’ll have plenty of time in between steps to tidy the kitchen or chat.
This recipe is a variation on last summer’s Baked Feta Dip with Cherry Tomatoes, which was inspired by the viral TikTok roasted cherry tomato and feta pasta and Deb’s version of it.
It’s always fun to see how recipes morph over time, and this one is a real winner. Please give it a try and let me know what you think!
Tomato & Chickpea Pasta Tips
This recipe comes together beautifully! You’ll find the full recipe below, but here are a few tips before you get started.
Choose small cherry tomatoes at the store, if possible. Grape tomatoes will work if that’s what they have. Bigger cherry/grape tomatoes have tougher skin that can be distracting in the final dish.
Be sure to salt your pasta cooking water. The water should taste a little salty, but doesn’t need to taste “like the sea” (if you’re taking that phrase literally, you’d have to use an incredible amount of salt). Use at least 1 teaspoon of salt here, or more. In my experience, if pasta water is insufficiently salted, it’s impossible to get that flavor back by adding salt later. Most of it gets poured out, anyway.
Arrange the garlic cloves (peeled but left whole) in one corner of the dish. That way, they’re easy to find later. They develop irresistible caramelize flavor as they roast, and we’ll simply smash them against the side of the baking dish when we’re done.
Leftovers keep well for up to four days. That’s my standard time frame for all recipes of this nature. Leftovers make a great lunch, warmed in the microwave or even served cold like pasta salad.
Watch How to Make This Pasta
What to Serve with this Pasta
This pasta dish is rather hearty and doesn’t need complex accompaniments. The easiest option is my Super Simple Arugula Salad, which goes with just about anything. This Chopped Greek Salad or Vegetarian Italian Chopped Salad would complement these flavors, and you can simplify the additions if you’d like.
Outside of salads, green beans are in season along with tomatoes. Try my Perfect Roasted Green Beans for a simple side that can roast in the oven with the tomato mixture, or my Green Beans Amandine for a special occasion.
More Tomato Pasta Recipes to Make
All of these fresh pasta recipes make use of ripe summer tomatoes. Make them while you still can!
- Caprese Pasta Salad
- Creamy Cherry Tomato & Summer Squash Pasta
- Double Tomato Pesto Spaghetti with Zucchini Noodles
- Roasted Eggplant & Tomato Orzo Pasta
- Summertime Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Sauce
As always, please let me know how the recipe turns out in the comments. I love hearing from you.
Tomato & Chickpea Pasta with Goat Cheese
This easy pasta recipe features cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, goat cheese, olives and basil! It’s bursting with fresh Mediterranean flavors. Recipe yields 6 medium servings.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces short-cut pasta noodles
- One 4 to 5 ounce log of goat cheese
- 4 medium cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
- 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained, or 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas
- 2 pints (4 cups) cherry tomatoes – smaller tomatoes are better!
- ½ cup Kalamata olives, pitted and roughly chopped (optional)
- ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional, for heat)
- ⅓ cup thinly sliced fresh basil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit with a rack in the upper third of the oven. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook the pasta until tender according to package directions, then drain and rinse the noodles well with cool water.
- Place the goat cheese in the center of a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. Arrange the garlic cloves in one corner so they’re easier to find later. Add the chickpeas, tomatoes, and optional olives around the goat cheese, in that order. Then drizzle the olive oil all over the mixture. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt, several twists of pepper, and the red pepper flakes, if using.
- Bake for 20 minutes on the upper third rack, then place the dish on a heat-safe surface. Gently stir the goat cheese into the tomatoes and tuck the garlic cloves back down to the bottom of the dish.
- Return the dish to the oven and bake for 12 to 15 more minutes, until the tomatoes are juicy and shriveling and the goat cheese is starting to turn golden on top.
- Remove the dish from the oven. Carefully, using a fork, find each of the four garlic cloves and smash each one against the side of the pan. Gently swirl the cheese and tomatoes together.
- Carefully transfer all of the tomato mixture to the pot of rinsed and drained pasta. Taste, and add a pinch or two of salt if desired (if you omitted the olives, you may want even more).
- Sprinkle all over with fresh basil. Serve warm, or let the pasta cool to room temperature before refrigerating it for later. Leftovers keep well, covered and refrigerated, for up to 4 days.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my Baked Feta Dip with Cherry Tomatoes.
Make it gluten free: Substitute sturdy short-cut gluten-free pasta noodles.
Make it dairy free/vegan: Omit the goat cheese. Top the finished dip with a dollop of vegan sour cream, if you wish, and/or a heavy sprinkle of vegan Parmesan.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
WOW! Your receipts looks absolutely delicious! Definately gonna try them out
Thank you! Please let me know how they turn out for you. :)
This look dee-lish ! Making tonight and will have some feedback later …..
later, really good ! So unfortunately did not have fresh basil . I used a fair amount of pasta water to make it more saucy . Yes included the olives ! divine addition !enjoy !
Thank you, Annie! Really appreciate your feedback!
Sounds delish. Would it be safe to cut the oil a bit? How about adding spinach? (I add it to everything)
Many thanks
Thanks, Roberta! You can decrease the oil somewhat, but it honestly make the dish so luxurious and satisfying. You could likely stir a couple of handfuls of spinach into the baking dish when you stir the tomatoes or directly into the dish once it’s hot out of the oven. I’m not sure which of those options would work best. Please report back!
Thanks for your help. Appreciate your support.
We are in Italy as I’m reading your recipe. After all the pasta and pizza we’ve eaten for the last month, I thought when we get home I would avoid pasta for awhile. This recipe makes me know I’ll try it soon after we return! Sounds scrumptious, as all your recipes are.
Oh, I would love to be in Italy! This pasta is very wholesome and I think it will help you ease back into home cooking. :)
This looks amazing!
I’ve never made a recipe from you that I didn’t like. I will be trying this one tonight.
Thank you for all the wonderful recipes.
Thank you, Chantal! I hope you’re having a great day.
Made this tonight for dinner. It was easy and really tasty.
Thanks so much, Cindy! I’m glad to hear it.
The recipe calls for a log of goat cheese. Where I live, you can find log-type goat cheese with a rind on (so it’ll be a harder cheese) or without rind (soft, spreadable). Which type would one neaad for this recipe?
Hi Julie! The soft, spreadable kind is what you want here. That’s what I am always specifying by a log of goat cheese. I don’t think I’ve ever used a goat cheese with rind, that sounds interesting!
This is an easy dish to make with such great flavors. Mine came out a bit too salty….I think
between the gaat cheese, olives and extra salt I added, it was a bit much. Next time, I will eliminate the salt and reduce olives. This is so easy to make….after a long day, it came together quickly and easily. Thanks!
Thanks, Laura! Sounds like a plan—I know olives vary in sodium content and of course, saltiness is subjective!
Excellent, flavorful and filling! No changes. My family said it is a keeper!
Thank you, Megan! Happy to hear it!
This was easy and awesome. We licked it clean!!
Yay! Thanks, Cheryl!
I must made this dish. Awesome! My daughter said it’s restaurant style. A new dish we can make at home. Thank you Cookie & Kate!
Marvelous! Thank you for letting me know, Michael!
So easy and, oh so good. Had with Simple Arugula Salad…no leftovers.
So glad to hear it! Thank you for your feedback!
Hello Kate…I just made this dish following the recipe exactly and it was absoloutely wonderful and I must say very easy to put together.
I love a lot of your recipes and have your cook book which is my go to for some of my favourites. I have been on your email list for years now. Thanks for another tasty dish!!!!!
Carol in BC, Canada
Thank you, Carol! It’s so nice to hear from you. Happy to hear that you enjoyed this one as well!
This was an extremely easy and quick to put together recipe and not to mention very tasty, even my husband who’s not a huge fan of goat cheese liked it! Thanks Kate
Hooray! Thank you, Melissa!
Delicious! I made this for dinner tonight and
even my non vegetarian husband loved it.
It’s uncomplicated and fairly quick to prepare for a fast week night dinner. The fresh flavors
of sweet juicy tiny tomatoes and fresh rosemary
marry well with creamy goat cheese. The addition of olives and pepper flakes adds just
the right spicing. Be sure to make enough for
leftovers for next day’s lunch!
Karen, thank you! So glad you both enjoyed it.
Very good! Easy to prepare! I made this for dinner last night and we loved it. We didn’t have the short cut pasta so I used fettuccini we had on hand. Next time I’ll add another garlic clove or two and more red pepper flakes (possibly chipolte chili powder). This + an arugula salad would be a nice dinner for our ski family after a winter day on the slopes.
Thank you, Susan! Fettuccini sounds good to me. Glad you enjoyed this one.
i made this tonight. we wolfed it down!!! we’re not vegetarian but this was a delicious no-meat pasta dish. i might even go back for seconds right now haha. this one is going into the rotation for sure. i’ve been following kate for years and she has the most trustworthy recipes ever :)
Thank you so much, Amy! Your comment made my day.
I made this tonight. My family enjoyed it. Thank you for doing this recipe – it’s a cool twist on the tiktok tomato feta pasta. I liked the addition of chickpeas and kalamata olives; it really gave it additional flavoring. Every Cookie and Kate recipe I make is delicious and this one joins that list!
Yay! Thank you for your feedback, Kristine!
Long time “student” of yours here. I’m vacationing in Provence right now and was looking for a new recipe to try and was intrigued by this one. I was looking for an another easy tasty dinner like your Caprese pasta. Like another comment mentioned from Italy, the goat cheese here in France also has a rind on it. I left it on and it does not melt. But I did easily remove it before stirring the mixture together. This was yummy but the chickpeas seem to dull the flavor for me, if that makes sense. I will try some balsamic vinegar on the leftovers tomorrow and see if it brightens it up for me. This was super easy and I look forward to tweaking it to our personal liking. Thanks, Kate, for providing such great recipes with such easy to follow directions. You’re the reason I love to cook!
Thank you for your feedback, Paul! How lovely to be in France. I’m glad you were able to enjoy this one over there! I find that some chickpeas offer better (or more pronounced) flavor than others and have been really enjoying the Jovial brand in glass jars lately. I find them at Whole Foods. Happy cooking!
A Hit With All!
I made this last night for my husband and mother. Both said it was delicious and that I should definitely make it again!
I used organic whole wheat rotini pasta (which I already had in my pantry) and we thought it worked nicely with the dish.
I only used about 1/4 C of the olives as my “guests” are not olive lovers.
We enjoyed our dinner with a garden salad and homemade garlic bread.
Thank you, Kimberley! Glad to hear this one was a hit. Your meal sounds fantastic.
This was very good! Loved the saltiness of the olives with the creaminess of the goat cheese.
I’m glad you loved it, Alyssa!
Your recipes never disappoint! I made this for dinner tonight, with a few alterations- I had done extra veggies on hand & added some kale, and zucchini. I also added fresh ground bison that I sautéed in Marsala wine. Made a fresh slice of garlic bread as s side dish. My husband loved it & helped himself to seconds. Great recipe!
Great to hear, Megan!
This was so good! I did have to make some slight modifications due to not having the complete quantities of some of the ingredients…I made it with half of the pasta (4oz), half of the tomatoes, same amount of garbanzo beans, and full amount of cheese (I know. Don’t judge me). I left out the olives and added spinach towards the end of cooking time. This made enough for a few servings. It was really filling and tasty, and loved the hint of red pepper flakes for a kick. I will add to it my rotation!
Great to hear! Thank you for your review, Sammi.
This is cooking right now and the house smells divine! Question – I’m making it to take to a party this evening. Is it ok to just put in a bowl at room temperature or do you think it needs to be reheated? I was trying to go for simple and thought this could almost act like a pasta salad?
Can’t wait to try a sample before serving!
Thank you!
I don’t recommend keeping food out too long for health reasons. You can gently reheat on stove top or in the oven.
This was beyond delicious!! Thanks so much for your amazing recipes. I could have eaten all 4 portions!!
I love to hear that, Pippa! I appreciate your review.
Loved this simple tasty recipe! I added eggplant to the roast pan and halved the tomatoes- came out very nicely! I also used goats cheese with herbs for a bit of extra flavour. Will definitely make again- thanks Kate for another fabulous recipe!
You’re welcome, Laurie!
Amazingly delicious and so easy! Will be adding this to the regular summer meal rotation
That’s great to hear, Elizabeth!