Roasted Vegetable Penne
This is an easy mid-week pasta dish with roasted vegetables, olive oil, warm pasta and basil leaves. A Summery light warm pasta salad, with plenty of vegetables. Roast all the vegetables on trays, and toss them through warm pasta to save time. For smaller children chop the vegetables small, to make the dish easier to eat.
You can of course make endless variations of this recipe and you can also a protein too: shredded chicken, or flaked salmon, as examples, would be delicious.
ingredients ~
1/2 aubergine, trimmed and diced
1 red pepper, deseed and dice
1 courgette, trimmed and diced
1 red onion, peeled and cut into wedges
400g tomatoes, washed and quartered
3 fat garlic cloves in their skins
200g penne
handful of fresh cherry tomatoes, halved
handful fresh basil leaves, picked through
olive oil
Parmesan grated (optional)
To make the Roasted Vegetable Penne ~
Preheat the oven 180C fan
Meanwhile prep all the vegetables: arrange on baking trays, with the garlic cloves and toss everything in olive oil. I used two trays spacing the veg evenly, so the vegetables cook through. Roast the veg and garlic in the oven for 20 mins or so, until everything is cooked through (depending on how large or small the vegetable pieces are)
Whilst the vegetables are roasting in the oven you can cook the penne, in lots of boiling water (following the packet instructions). Then drain the pasta.
To assemble the dish: remove the cooked vegetables from the oven. Take a large bowl and first add the tomatoes, mash with a fork to create an instant sauce, add a glug of good olive oil and the garlic cloves (popped out of their skins and mashed). Next add the warm penne: coat in the tomato mix. Finally toss through the cooked veg, halved cherry tomatoes, a grind of black pepper, scatter with fresh basil and grated Parmesan (optional).