Help with recipe? Working on a pasta dish, and need....pizzaz.?

We're having 'Italian night' on Wednesday, and it's also my father's birthday, so we're having him over.





I have a fresh tagliatelle recipe I'm dying to try (which should be interesting as I don't have a pasta machine, but rolling pins, ho!).





My idea was to toss the tagliatelle with:





roasted heirloom tomatoes (going to halve these) and roasted garlic (roast them both tossed with olive oil, sea salt %26amp; cracked black pepper), and then just add a couple tablespoons of some sort of fat (brown butter? Ghee? Olive oil? Help...) and some grated parm or romano. I'm not sure which. I had also debated on capers.





We're having strip steak with this, and also probably some sort of salad, so I don't think it needs meat. My instinct was for pancetta, but I don't like the idea of having pork AND beef in the same meal. As far as salad I'll probably just carmelize some pears and pecans in brown butter and brown sugar, and put them over baby greens with some goat cheese (am addicted to goat cheese).





I'm not sure about the pasta- I'm going for 'simplistic', but I don't want to sacrifice 'interesting'. Any ideas to make it more of a stand-out dish?Help with recipe? Working on a pasta dish, and need....pizzaz.?
pastsa and meat sauce salad garlic breadHelp with recipe? Working on a pasta dish, and need....pizzaz.?
Sounds tasty!





For the pasta add extra virgin olive oil - nice flavor that will add depth. Use romano - again deeper flavor. I would also add at the very end finely chopped fresh basil (personally I believe the more basil the better).





Also, add some fresh italian oregano and basil to the tomatoes and garlic before roasting.
Olive oil for sure, and I always add black olives to my pasta dishes!