Roasted vegetable pasta

6:37 PM | Labels: Italian

Ingredients:

Vegetables for roasting – Zucchini – 1, Cucumber – 1, Yellow squash – 1, Egg plant – 1, Red pepper – 1, Onion – 1/2. Cut all the vegetables into medium size chunks.
Vegetables for sauce – Onion – remaining ½; garlic pods – 3 chopped.
Pasta/tomato sauce – 1 cup
Cheddar and mozzarella cheese – 1 cup (1/2 cup for making pasta sauce and remaining ½ cup for baking pasta)
Pasta – 2 cups (I prefer 100% whole wheat fusilli pasta but anything is fine)
Salt – 2 tsp (adjust as per taste),
Crushed red pepper – 1 tsp
Black pepper powder – 1 tsp
Italian seasoning – 1 tsp
Parsley – 1 cup chopped and rinsed
Olive oil – 2 tsp

Recipe:

Step 1 – Roasting vegetables: Pre-heat oven at 400F. Arrange vegetable chunks on a baking sheet. Season with 1 tsp olive oil and ½ tsp each of salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper and Italian seasoning. Mix everything together. Put the vegetables in oven and let it cook for about 30 mins. Stir vegetables every 10 minutes to cook uniformly.

Step 2 – Making pasta sauce: Meanwhile vegetables are cooked in oven, start making pasta sauce. Heat remaining olive oil in a pan. Once heated, add 1/2 chopped onion and chopped garlic. Cook for about 5-7 mins till onions soften and turn pinkish and translucent. Add pasta/tomato sauce. Cook for about 5-7 mins. Turn heat to low-medium and add ½ cup cheese and mix everything well. Add 1 tsp salt, and remaining red pepper, black pepper and Italian seasoning. Cook for additional 2 minutes. Then add ½ cup parsley and mix well. Turn off the gas. Your sauce is ready.

Step 3 – Cooking pasta: Cook pasta simultaneous with making sauce as per the instructions on pasta packet.

Step 4 – Baking pasta: Mix roasted vegetables (step 1), pasta sauce (step 2), and cooked pasta (step 3) in a baking tray. Top it with remaining ½ cup cheese and put the baking tray in oven. Cook for about 10 mins at 400F. Turn oven to broiler for last few mins to give top layer of cheese a crispy brown touch.
Remove tray from oven and garnish with remaining ½ cup parsley. Enjoy!

Note: Mozzarella cheese tend to be sticky in pasta sauce. However, baking pasta in step 4 helps to make it less sticky while eating!

Enjoy!