roasted veggie pasta salad
i love to get up a
little earlier in the morning to make this pasta dish. gives it plenty of time
to sit in the fridge while i’m at work all day - letting the flavors have time
to shake hands and really get to know each other! whether you make it earlier in
the day and eat it later, or make it and eat it right away - it’s all good!
"dressing” (it’s
more like pesto, perhaps!):
5 cloves of garlic,
peeled & roasted
2 sun-dried tomatoes
(the kind that are packed in oil)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp olive oil (for
drizzling)
10 fresh basil leaves
pasta:
1 box of organic whole
wheat rotini or penne pasta (or any kind of pasta you prefer!)
veggies (mmmmm!) &
other goodies:
1 eggplant, chopped
into bite size chunks
1 bunch of asparagus,
chopped into 2” pieces
1 yellow or red bell
pepper, chopped
½ cup chopped roasted
red peppers
½ cup chopped
artichokes (i chop up the jarred marinated kind)
sea salt, just a pinch
or two
cooking oil spray (we
like the organic olive oil the best!)
what’s
needed:
aluminum foil
cookie sheet
food processor
large pot
large serving bowl
(optional)
large sauce pan lid
small oven safe tray (i use the little tray that came with my toaster oven!)
also read:
what’cha
gotta do:
peel the garlic cloves
and place them in the center of a 5”x5” square of aluminum foil (you can save
the other piece of the foil for more future garlic roasting!). now drizzle the
teaspoon of olive oil over the cloves and close up the foil around the them –
creating a little packet of garlic goodness. place the garlic foil packet on
your little tray and place all of it in the oven on 350 degrees (no need to
preheat here). let that cook (for about 15-20 minutes or so) while you start
all the other good stuff…
now put a pot of water
on the stove and get that water boiling!
while you’re waiting
for your water to start boiling get a head start on chopp’n up all those
delicious veggies into the sizes specified above.
once your water is
boiling throw in your pasta and cook it up how ya like it (we like ours al
dente – so we cook it for about 9-10 minutes.) once your pasta is finished
cooking drain the water off and rinse the pasta with cold water (you can also
collect the old pasta water and the rinsing water and save it for watering some
plants!). leave the pasta in the colander to cool off a little more while you
cook your veggies!
take your chopped
eggplant, chopped asparagus, and cut up bell pepper (not the roasted red
peppers – the fresh bell pepper!) and place them all on a large cookie sheet
that’s been sprayed with a little oil (i like to use organic olive oil cooking
spray). sprinkle a pinch or two of sea salt over the veggies and mix them all
up so you get that sea salt evenly distributed. make sure to lay the veggies
out flat so they're not overcrowding and on top of each other, and spray just a
little of the cooking oil (just a wee bit!) over the veggies.
by this time your
garlic should be pretty well roasted. take the garlic foil pack out and carefully
open it up – it’ll be pretty hot in there – so watch out! give your garlic and
poke with a knife (you can use your finger, if you dare) and if it’s squishy
and easy to poke through it’s roasted and good to go! if it’s not quite done
let it finish cooking (about 5 minutes more) and then remove from the oven. set
aside for a few minutes.
jack up the oven to 425
degrees and put the cookie sheet loaded with those veggies in for 15 minutes.
while your veggies are
cooking toss the roasted garlic and the 3 tbsp of olive oil in a food processor
and give it a whirl! make sure to get that garlic chopped up really well and
then add in your 2 sun-dried tomatoes and pulse it some more. once you’ve
chopped it all up throw in your fresh basil leaves and give it just a few last
pulses. set aside.
after cooking the veggies for 15 minutes take ‘em out and mix ‘em up a bit! they should be getting nice and brown. pop them back in the oven for another 5 minutes.
take the cooled pasta
and toss it back in the large pot you used to cook it in. once your veggies are
all cooked up throw them all in there, as well as the artichokes, and those
roasted red peppers you chopped up, too. gently mix the veggies and pasta as
you drizzle the dressing over all of it. keep gently mixing everything until
you feel like it’s well coated.
last step: transfer to
a large serving bowl (if you want to) and cover (i use a large sauce pan lid
instead of plastic wrap! less waste!) and refrigerate for a few hours. gobble
up later – or gobble it up now!
this recipe makes a bunch – it’s also damn tasty as leftovers for the next day or two. and if you want to add on some more awesomeness - just toast up some pine nuts, sprinkle a few on top, and enjoy!