Roasted Veggie Pasta

I am a planner.  There are always a few plans for my life floating around in the back of my mind.  On a much smaller scale, I always enter each week with a plan for our meals that somehow brings together all my ideas for things I’d like to cook that come from dog-eared magazine pages, Pinterest pins, internet bookmarks and post-it stuck pages in cookbooks.

My favorite recipe planner pages are from Artsy Fartsy Mama.

I love them because they’re pretty they bring together my menu, my blog posts and other stuff I need to throughout a week and “other stuff” I want to cook, which is what I use the “shopping list” section for. And they’re free.

Because a fair percentage of my recipes come from the internet, I LOVE using ZipList to make my shopping lists.  If you’re the least bit techy, you should check out their “How It Works” page for all the details, but it basically works like this:

• Sign up for a free account.
• Install the Recipe Clipper applet and the free app for your phone.
• Go to the page where your recipe lives.
• Click the Recipe Clipper.  The recipe and all the ingredients are sent to your shopping list.
• Organize the list if needed and manually enter any other things you’re shopping for.
• Take your phone shopping and check the items off as you put them in your cart.  The lists are synced back and forth, so whatever you add online is on your phone and whatever you check off on your phone is taken away from the online list.  Amazing.

Though I pretend that I’m being ultra creative, each week I have basically the same types of dishes on my menu: a pasta dish, a quick and easy dish, a chicken dish, a meatless dish, a fish dish and something that falls into the “other” category like pizza or breakfast for dinner.

This recipe is my favorite pasta dish right now.  I have to admit that when I ran across it I was skeptical.  Just looking at it, it looks too simple to be fabulous.  But, I saved it anyway because it’s meatless and looked very healthy.  I gave it a shot one week and I probably make it every other week now.  And, as a bonus, my four year-old is nuts about it

Roasted Vegetable Penne Pasta (adapted slightly from The Slow Roasted Italian)

Printable recipe

- INGREDIENTS -

2 zucchini
1 eggplant
8 oz mushrooms, roughly chopped
2 pints pearl or grape tomatoes
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup + 2 tablespoons Parmigiano Reggiano (grated and divided)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound whole wheat penne pasta
salt and pepper, to taste

- PREPARATION -

Preheat oven to 400°.  Prepare 2 cookie sheets by lining them with parchment paper.

1. Wash vegetables well with soap and cool water.  Dry and cut into bite size pieces, about 1/2″.

2.  Separate veggies between two pans and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast for 40-45 minutes, rotating top and bottom pan and stirring vegetables every 15 minutes.   Once your vegetables start to brown around the edges they are done.

 3.  Approximately 15 minutes before vegetables are done, prepare penne by bringing an 8 quart pot of water to a boil.  Add pasta and a handful of salt.  Cook according to package directions (approximately 7-10 minutes).  Remove from heat when pasta is al dente.  Drain.  Pour pasta into a large serving bowl, add hot roasted vegetables on top.

4.  Drizzle 1/4 cup olive oil over the top and add garlic and 1 cup cheese.  Toss well to combine.  Sprinkle top with parmesan cheese and serve.

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