Roasted Summer Vegetable Pasta

This vegan roasted summer vegetable pasta is a high summer staple, and a recipe that I make every year when there’s a real abundance. With tomatoes, zucchini, onion, and sweet peppers, it’s really a celebration of the end of the season, and uses common garden ingredients. Depending on your climate you can probably make this well into September.

This is a great weeknight meal or weekend lunch – you roast the veg in the time it takes for the water to boil and pasta to cook, and everything’s on the table in less than twenty minutes.

The vegetables are cooked with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to make a light sauce in the baking sheet and you can serve it just like that, or top it off with a little vegan pesto if you like a very saucy pasta. This is similar to the base of roasted vegetable soup, so if you have everything on hand, you can make both.

Why You Should Try This Recipe

There’s nothing better than a set it and forget it kind of sauce, and this is an excellent example. Cook the pasta while the sauce is in the oven and everything is ready at once.

• It needs less than ten ingredients: just a handful of vegetables, spices, pasta, oil, and vinegar. Easy peasy.
• The flavour is excellent without much time: using flavour shortcuts like balsamic vinegar and in-season vegetables makes all the difference. You don’t need a long cooking time to boost anything because you’re starting out with something good.
• It’s easy to make gluten-free: use a GF pasta type. For extra protein and other nutrients, use a legume based pasta like red lentil.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Tomatoes: use cherry tomatoes for the best result. If possible, try to get different coloured varieties for a prettier pasta.
• Zucchini: this can be any summer squash, including typical green or yellow zucchini or other types like pattypan.
• Spices: you can omit the hot pepper flakes if you are quite sensitive to spice, as there is a hint of it from black pepper.

Step by Step

1. Prep the vegetables: cut the veg and mix in a baking dish with the spices, vinegar, and oil.
2. Cook: roast the vegetables in the oven for about 20 minutes. While they’re cooking, prepare the pasta. Mix when finished.

If you can’t see the video in the post, please watch it on YouTube instead.

Recipe Notes

The vegetables can be switched up depending on what you like. Maybe you love mushrooms, or shallots, or want to add a little corn or spinach after roasting.

Don’t drain the pasta and then let it sit in the colander for ages. Drain and quickly switch the pasta back into the pot, and don’t worry about getting all the pasta water out – a bit mixed in with the sauce isn’t a bad thing.

Cherry tomatoes are best for this recipe as larger types tend to create too much liquid during cooking. Any colour of cherry or small plum tomato is fine.

How to Store

Storage: like most pasta dishes, this is best fresh. The sauce can be stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator for a day or two and reheated when needed.

Freezing: if you want to make the sauce separately from the pasta, it can be frozen, but it isn’t excellent when thawed. There are better ways to preserve summer, like with tomato confit.

Expert Tips

• Don’t rinse the pasta: it’s meant to retain a bit of the starch from cooking, and rinsing will both remove that and some of the seasoning. Salt the water well, and don’t rinse.
• Choose small zucchini: the smaller, the better, in terms of flavour. You want to harvest them when they’re little and choose small firm varieties when shopping.
• Salt, salt, salt: As always, make sure you generously salt your pasta water (like the sea). It’s the first step to a properly seasoned pasta dish.

More Late Summer Recipes

Greek Chickpea Salad
Super Green Pasta
Summer Harvest Burrito Bowl
Vegan Pesto Pizza