"GO TO" Pasta with Grape tomatoes and Garlic

Are you starving in your house just waiting for ravenous wolves to come and eat you? Do you have a few ingredients in your pantry but not enough to throw together something lavish? Then this dish is for you. A little of this...a little of that. This is my "GO TO " pasta. The only reason I have measurements in the ingredients is to give you viewers an idea of what you should be putting into the dish. HOWEVER, do what you like. This pasta dish is relatively healthy, and super easy to make. We are talking under 30 minutes here people.

"Go to" pasta with grape tomatoes and garlic:

The Recipe:

Penne pasta or any small pasta like fusilli, bowtie, wheels, rigatoni, etc.
Olive oil
About a cup of grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
3-5 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1/2 lemon's juice
Block of cheese to shave. Romano or Parmesan.
1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
A few shakes of dried basil, or a few shreds of fresh basil
A pinch of cayenne pepper
Kosher Salt
Pepper
OPTIONAL- 1-2 Tbsp Butter

The Procedure:
1. Boil water in a medium pasta pot and cook pasta until al dente. Drain and set aside. MEANWHILE, prepare the sauce.
*secret: salt your pasta like the ocean and add a little olive oil to prevent it from foaming over.
2. In a medium size nonstick frying pan, pour in about a Tbsp of olive oil and heat to medium-high heat.
* secret: you can tell when the oil is hot enough if you see "waves" in the bottom of the pan or by testing a few drops of water in the pan to see if it sizzles.
3. Add the onions and tomatoes and season with Kosher Salt, then the reduce heat to medium-low.
4. Cover the pan for about 2-3 minutes and stir.
5. Once onions are translucent and tomatoes are soft and puckered, squish the back of the tomatoes with a large wooden spoon until the juices come out. POP POP SQUISH. This creates a sauce.
6. OPTIONAL STEP- add butter
7. Add the garlic and stir to coat pieces
8. Cover the pan for about another 2 minutes and stir.
9. Take your half lemon, and drizzle the juices into the pan. Add as much as you like. I usually find 1 good, hard squeeze to be enough.
10. Add the balsamic vinegar and cooked pasta to the pan.
11. Add basil, cayenne pepper, season with salt and pepper, and stir to coat everything.
12. Cover for 2-3 minutes, transfer to a bowl, shave cheese into bowl like a glutton
13. Serve immediately.