I didn’t take a serious interest in cooking until probably my junior year of college. I had dabbled in it before, but that summer I tasked my dad with teaching me as many recipes as possible. Despite the fact that I’ve loved cooking ever since and have made home-cooked meals almost every night for the past three years, it was only recently that I started to venture into the world of creating my own recipes. I’ve always found it much easier to just follow a recipe, but I want to get to a point where I can just whip something up without needing an instruction manual.
For me, pasta has been the easiest starting point. It’s pretty hard to mess up and there are tons of ways to customize it! For the longest time I didn’t eat pasta very often because I prefer to have vegetable-heavy meals and it felt hard to incorporate them as sides because pasta is so filling. A couple of weeks ago I was meal planning and realized, HELLO, you can put veggies IN the pasta! I know, I know. I don’t know why it took me 25 years on this planet to have that thought. Anyways, I set to work creating a yummy, veggie-packed pasta recipe that I could share here, and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. Check the recipe out below – I hope you enjoy it!
*NOTE: I found the Balsamic Glaze that I used in this recipe at Trader Joe’s, and I highly recommend it! If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s nearby, you could probably make this work with regular balsamic vinegar – just start with less and use your judgment when adding more.
Balsamic Pasta with Roasted Vegetables
Difficulty: Beginner4
servings5
minutes20
minutes30
minutesIngredients
12 oz farfalle pasta
1 green bell pepper, chopped into 1 inch chunks
1 red onion, chopped into 1 inch chunks
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
2 TBSP olive oil
8 cloves garlic, pressed
2 TBSP balsamic glaze (I get mine at Trader Joe’s)
1 TBSP melted butter
Garlic powder to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Feta cheese, for topping
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix the pepper, onion, tomatoes, and garlic together with olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper.
- Transfer vegetables and garlic to a sheet pan and roast for 18-20 minutes, stirring halfway through.
- While vegetables are roasting, cook the pasta in boiling water according to the package directions.
- Once the pasta and vegetables have finished cooking, drain the water from the pasta and mix in the vegetables.
- Add the balsamic glaze and melted butter to the mixture and stir until butter has melted.
- Finish it off with some garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste. Scoop into bowls and top with feta cheese. Enjoy!
