This one is from marthastewart.com. It's good for a quick weeknight dinner. I made it last night, but halved the recipe for the two of us. To make it extra spicy, I used the full amount of olive oil and red pepper flakes, plus three cloves of garlic.
Serves 4
Coarse salt and ground pepper
12 oz rigatoni, penne or other short tubular pasta (I used pipette)
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes (not oil-packed), thinly sliced
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1 tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp red-pepper flakes
5 oz soft goat cheese, crumbled, plus more for topping (optional--but in my opinion, you can never have too much goat cheese)
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley (the recipe doesn't say it's optional, but I left out the parsley and the dish still tasted very good)
In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta 3 minutes less than package instructions. Add sun-dried tomatoes and cook 3 minutes. Remove 2 cups pasta water; reserve. Drain and return pasta mixture to pot.
Meanwhile, heat a small skillet over medium heat. Add almonds and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and fragrant, 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl; reserve. Return skillet to medium heat; add oil, garlic and red-pepper flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, 20 to 30 seconds. Remove from heat.
To pasta mixture in pot, add garlic mixture, reserved pasta water, cheese and parsley. Season with salt and pepper; stir to combine. Let stand until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Divide pasta among four shallow dishes; sprinkle with almonds and, if desired, additional cheese.
