I’m not saying we’ve all gotta eat pasta for every meal – but we should revisit it every so often for sure.
With this Easy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta.
The combination of savory and deeply flavored roasted red peppers and broccoli, with a little zing from lemon juice and balsamic is sure to keep you coming back for more. By coming back for more, I mean shamelessly eating serving spoonfuls of it out of the pot you made it in.
The most recent time that I made this fell on the same day that a friend of mine who works at a nearby coffee shop was starving at work and had no easy access to nourishing food. I put on my elastic pants and delivered arguably the best work lunch she’s had to date (a little biased, here) while keeping myself from literally eating all of it in one sitting.
Alright, back to the pasta. I was fortunate enough to make this with the most delectable little peppers from Sungold Farm and Farmhaven Farm that I picked up at the local market, Cobblestone.
If you have different vegetables, you’d like to roast instead, get crazy and be creative. Regardless of the type of veggie you use, this makes a great cozy dinner.
I know, I know…you just want the recipe:
Yield: 6 servings (potentially)
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Roasted Vegetable Ingredients:
1 one large head of broccoli, sliced into bite-size pieces (I like to leave mine pretty large to retain a more firm texture)
1 red bell pepper, or other peppers of your choice, sliced up into 1” squares
1 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt
Pasta Ingredients:
8 ounces of linguine or spaghetti (I try to use whole wheat, brown rice, or quinoa pasta) of your choice
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 small yellow or red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced/pressed
12 ounces baby spinach (use more than you think you need visually)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
Optional: 1 ounce of vegan parmesan cheese or finely grated regular parmesan cheese, plus extra for topping
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. You obviously don’t have to use parchment paper, but who likes cleaning, amiright?
2. Transfer the sliced broccoli and peppers to the baking sheet, drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil, and toss until coated. Add a dash of salt and arrange everything in an even layer before baking for about 25 minutes. I recommend stirring them lightly halfway through.
3. After you put those veggies in the oven, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook your pasta. Before you drain the al dente pasta, keep a cup or so of the pasta water (shhh, just trust me) and set it aside for later. Drain the pasta.
4. In a large pot (I usually use the same pot, because…dishes) over medium heat, warm 2 tbsp olive oil. Add the chopped onion, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, and cook, stirring well, for about 3-5 minutes until the onion is translucent. Then, move onto the garlic and cook for about 20 seconds before adding handfuls of spinach while stirring until all of the spinach is in the pot. It’s pretty crucial that you don’t cook the life out of the spinach since slimy spinach will all but ruin your hard work. When it’s reduced but still mostly bright green, add the balsamic vinegar and remove the whole pot from its heat source.
5. Combine the roasted veggies, cooked pasta, spinach mixture, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp olive oil, and parmesan. Drizzle 1/3-1/2 cup of the pasta water that we saved over this and toss everything together.
For those of us prepping for meals ahead, this Easy Roasted Red Pepper Pasta keeps great for several days (though I’ve never had it last that long, to be honest) and would work well with a made-ahead kale salad for work days.
Happy pasta eating, noodle friends.
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