Ziti with Roasted Tomatoes

I wanted to try some use for tomatoes other than the traditional sauce, especially since the traditional sauce takes more time than I typically have on a weeknight.  I had read a blurb about roasting tomatoes in a cooking magazine a while ago and decided to give it a try.  Adding other vegetables produced a pretty tasty sauce in about 20 minutes, which is much more my weeknight speed.

Serves 4

1 lb grape or cherry tomatoes, cleaned with stems removed
3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 small onion, quartered
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (1 tablespoon fresh minced thyme)
1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups ziti, uncooked
15-20 leaves swiss chard, stems removed and chopped (about 3 cups chopped)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1. Combine tomatoes, garlic, and onion in gallon-sized baggie.  Add salt, pepper, thyme, and olive oil.  Seal baggie and shake to coat vegetables in oil.  Place vegetables on a lipped baking sheet.  Bake vegetables at 450 degrees for 15 minutes or until tomatoes are popped and browned.
2. While tomatoes are baking, cook pasta according to package directions.  When there is 5 minutes remaining on the cooking time, stir swiss chard into boiling pasta water.  Drain completely when pasta and swiss chard are done.  Set aside.
3. After tomatoes are removed from oven and still very hot, use a wooden spoon to burst tomatoes.  Push on garlic cloves until they pop out of peels; discard peels.  Using wooden spoon, mash garlic cloves and onions into tomatoes.  This mashing should create a thick sauce on the baking sheet.
4. Return pasta and swiss chard to pot.  Stir tomato sauce into pasta, coating pasta and evenly distributing sauce.  Stir Parmesan cheese into pasta and sauce.  Serve hot.