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roasted vegetable pasta

November 18th, 2010 | 5 Comments »

There’s a lot of cowboy in me. Not the horse-ridin’ spur-wearin’ giddy-up-ing cowboy, but the kind that understands ‘Cowboy Cooking’ as a necessary culinary term.

Most people these days better understand the term ‘Iron Chef’ though, thanks to the ubiquitous presence of the Food Network. Cowboy cooking, or Iron Chef-ing is where you take a whole bunch of ingredients and come up with a dish that is nothing short of fantastic. It’s a skill that has served me well in my kitchen.

This roasted vegetable pasta dish was a stellar example of that. It’s from last winter and was a repeated entree in our kitchen for the remainder of the season.  All you do is roast up a pan of your favorite vegetables until they are fragrant and soft, then process them in a food processor to a chunky sauce. Mix them with a hefty pasta shape, add some grated parmesan and grab your fork. It works equally well to just toss them with pasta as is after roasting.

The sauce is versatile enough to also be used as an appetizer, topping crostini or another sturdy base.

And uh yeah….. ew; this photo is NOT my favorite, yet it’s what I get trying to photograph food in Minnesota during the month of February. Ugh. Sorry.

It really tastes FAR better than this looks. I promise! Yee haw!! Let’s get cookin’!

Roasted Vegetable Pasta

1 medium eggplant, cubed
1 medium yellow onion, cut into eighths
1 red pepper, seeded cored and cut into large chunks
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
4-6 cloves garlic, rough chopped into large pieces
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 # rigatoni
Fresh parmesan cheese
Chopped kalamata olives

Place vegetables into a large bowl. Pour about 1/8 c. of olive oil over them, salt and pepper and maybe some dried seasoning of your choice. Toss to coat. Place on cookie sheets and roast in a 400-degree oven for 25-35 minutes, or until vegetables are soft and fragrant. Gently stir once during the cooking.

Cook pasta to al dente. Drain, reserving about 2 cups of pasta water and keep pasta warm. Place roasted vegetables in food processor and add a cup of reserved pasta water and 1/8 c. olive oil. Process until mixture is chunky, scrape down sides and process to desired consistency. If mix is too thick, add some more pasta water. You want it to be spreadable but not drippy, thick but not gloppy.

Toss vegetable mix with warm pasta. You may not need it all so scoop accordingly. Toss to coat pasta, add in kalamata olives (if desired) and parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot.

And remember when I recently talked about that yummy Panko Crumb topping? Hello, and giddyup …..it works perfect here.

5 responses to “roasted vegetable pasta”

  1. Emile Degnim says:

    Thanks. I’m supposed to cook for my new vegan girlfriend next week and have absolutely no idea what to make! I found a loadlots of recipes at this vegetarian recipes site but with soo many to choose from I just got confused. Do you have any recommendations, like .. the tastiest vegetarian recipe, ever, or something?! Thanks in advance! I hope it goes well

  2. Thanks for that! My dad recently harvested a garden full of tomatoes before the winter really set in, and I found myself the owner of two or four buckets worth! Of course I couldnt eat them all like that, but I did find a website full of even more tomato recipes at that site. A website dedicated the topic!! Crazy what you can find on the internet these days!!

  3. […] Roasted vegetable pasta, lingonberry sauce, gluten-free Thanksgiving muffins, root veg pancakes (a little like domestic okonomiyaki!), curry puffs and stuffed peppers, pumpkin pie pudding with bourbon whipped cream, roasted Brussels sprouts with garlic and pancetta, lemon thyme twice baked potatoes. » Root Veg Pancakes and Recipe Roundup » Print Version // » Leave a Comment Click here to cancel reply. […]

  4. This is my favorite kind of cooking. I do this all the time! I didnt’ know I was a cowboy. Heigh-ho Silver!

    I LOVE roasted veggies. This looks amazing.

  5. doniree says:

    That sounds amazing! I remember how you taught me to make an alfredo out of steamed/roasted cauliflower, and I did that and added kalamatas to that mixture to salten it up a bit. SO GOOD. Imagine a roasted veggie sauce on spaghetti squash. HELLO nutrients.