One in every of my favourite components of making a brand new recipe is the factor of shock that happens when my first try seems in another way than anticipated. Sometimes, the alchemy of mixing elements and bringing them to life yields one thing even higher than what I’d imagined—and it makes cooking an journey that by no means will get outdated for me. At present’s pasta was born from one such glad accident—I got down to make the proper ratatouille recipe, and within the course of realized that for me, it lacked fundamental course power. So I began experimenting, and my ratatouille-style roasted vegetable pasta was born.
For me, that is the proper end-of-summer and into September recipe for these weeknights that change into a blur of back-to-whatever your schedule consists of. It makes use of the perfect of late-summer bounty (eggplants, zucchini, bell peppers) which might be really at their finest simply earlier than autumn bursts onto the scene in all her golden glory. And since these greens are slowly cooked collectively to an nearly stew-like consistency, this dish has that coziness that I begin to crave this time of 12 months, proper together with cozy socks and pumpkin bread.
Conventional ratatouille elements
For the uninitiated, let’s begin by declaring what offers this roasted vegetable pasta it’s ratatouille vibes (and no, it has nothing to do with a rat.) Ratatouille is a summer time vegetable stew that originated as a French dish from Provence. It options the standard but scrumptious greens that usually develop in late summer-early fall gardens: zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, and herbs.
In conventional ratatouille, all of the veggies are reduce into chunks and cooked along with numerous olive oil till they meld collectively and get a bit mushy. So, as I started my quest to make the proper ratatouille recipe, that’s the place I began, serving it merely with crusty bread for sopping up all of the juices. It was good, however for me, it was lacking one thing.
How you can make ratatouille roasted vegetable pasta
What I actually felt my ratatouille wanted to make it not simply good, however crave-worthy, was pasta. Particularly, chunky rigatoni cooked to al dente that might be excellent for sopping up all these juices into its crevices. So, after cooking all my ratatouille greens, I merely tossed them along with cooked rigatoni, added somewhat extra olive oil and plenty of parmesan shavings, and the tip consequence was an extremely easy summer time pasta that’s a lot greater than the sum of its components. Every forkful is the proper ratio of veg plus pasta—and the presentation is beautiful sufficient for a cocktail party, too.
What makes this roasted vegetable pasta really easy?
I’m not exaggerating after I say that this dinner solely requires about quarter-hour of hands-on cooking time. Apart from the pot you utilize to boil the pasta, all of the greens, herbs, and spices for this dish are baked collectively on a single sheet pan. You’ll need to stagger the baking time a bit as mirrored within the recipe, because the eggplant, zucchini, and garlic have to cook dinner somewhat longer than the tomatoes, peppers, and onions. By letting every little thing cook dinner all the way down to that ratatouille-like consistency, the greens create a sauce that evenly coats every bit of pasta and makes the ultimate dish so satisfying.
I additionally use high-quality canned tomatoes right here, which (name me loopy) are simply nearly as good as recent tomatoes on this dish. I don’t find out about you, however I completely detest the chore of chopping recent tomatoes into chunks, so I’m at all times in search of alternatives to take a canned tomato shortcut. I like San Marzano tomatoes if you will discover them, however a good-quality canned fire-roasted tomato at all times does the trick, too.
Ideas for making it forward and storing leftovers
One of many lovely issues about ratatouille is that it’s even higher the subsequent day—and the identical holds true for this roasted vegetable pasta. Simply pack it up in an hermetic container within the fridge, then gently reheat on the range or at half-power within the microwave tossed with somewhat further olive oil to maintain it from drying out. Excellent lunch leftovers are served.
That is additionally a good looking make-ahead dish, because it’s simply nearly as good served at room temperature as it’s scorching from the oven. Should you’re having associates for dinner, go forward and switch this roasted vegetable pasta to your largest serving bowl, place it within the middle of the desk, then embrace that Provence-style ease and let it hang around when you sip rosé and mingle round a pre-dinner snack or two. In spite of everything, summer time’s not over but.
Scroll on for the recipe for this Ratatouille Roasted Vegetable Pasta, then depart a score and assessment so we are able to hear the way it goes, and tag me on Instagram when you give it a strive.