Recently I’ve been feeling like I eat a lot of meat. Sure my body has been craving it but I was starting to feel like I need to reign those voices in. I’ve never been one of those people that HAS to have meat all the time, in fact I typically eat a lot of seafood and vegetarian-based meals, so making the switch wasn’t so hard.
My mind instantly went to some sort of pasta dish. Pasta is filling and you can load it up with veggies. I picked up my long abandoned copy of Everyday Italian by Giada and settled on the Pasta Primavera. I was drawn to it because it was so simple and packed with veggies. It also gave me an excuse to hit up my local farmers market and experience some of that bounty.
When I first read the recipe I didn’t really read it thoroughly. If I had I would have noticed that there isn’t much in the recipe to give the pasta any flavour. After reading through some comments I decided to roast the vegetables with some garlic to bump up the flavour. Thank goodness I did! The pasta would have been bland otherwise.
Overall I was happy with the results. It didn’t blow me away in the least but it was quick, easy and healthy which is what I was totally after. It’s a good weeknight meal but not necessarily something I’d serve to company
Pasta Primavera
Ingredients
* 3 carrots, peeled and cut into thin strips
* 2 medium zucchini or 1 large zucchini, cut into thin strips
* 2 yellow squash, cut into thin strips
* 1 onion, thinly sliced
* 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into thin strips
* 1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs or herbes de Provence
* 1 pound farfalle (bowtie pasta)
* 15 cherry tomatoes, halved
* 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
On a large heavy baking sheet, toss all of the vegetables with the oil, salt, pepper, and dried herbs to coat. Transfer half of the vegetable mixture to another heavy large baking sheet and arrange evenly over the baking sheets. Bake until the carrots are tender and the vegetables begin to brown, stirring after the first 10 minutes, about 20 minutes total.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
Toss the pasta with the vegetable mixtures in a large bowl to combine. Toss with the cherry tomatoes and enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten. Season the pasta with salt and pepper, to taste. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and serve immediately.
Recipe from Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentiis
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“Cook it in garlic & olive oil and throw some parm on it” is basically the recipe for every single thing that I make. I make some variation of this pasta dish all the time, but never thought to roast the veggies first. Definitely something I will try when it cools off and I can use the oven again!