You can have it all – health, wealth and pasta. With veggies galore at the grocery store and hot girl summer in full swing, this is the perfect, fast, week-night meal to satisfy without turning on the oven.
Use whatever veggies you have on hand in the fridge. The order of adding the veggies is important but there’s no way to truly mess this one up. You just need a few things to make this pasta sing: good olive oil, salted pasta water, lemon juice, smashed garlic and herbs.
The pasta water and olive oil will make this almost cream-like light sauce that coats just perfectly. There’s no need to add cream or extra sauce, especially if you’re looking to go more plant based.
Needs:
- Small Sauce Pot for Noodles
- Pan with higher sides (so veggies fall out of the pan)
Ingredients:
- Two handed pile of penne pasta
- Olive Oil
- 1 Smashed Garlic Clove
- Two handed pile of whatever veggies you have in the fridge. I used:
- Sliced Onions
- Diced Red Pepper
- Asparagus cut in one-inch pieces
- Broccoli Florets
- Sliced Mushrooms
- Ear of Corn, kernels removed.
- Halved Cherry Tomatoes
- Juice of Half a Lemon
- Whatever chopped up herbs you have on hand. I used:
- Parsley
- Basil
- Dill
- Salt and Pepper
How To:
- Salt the pasta water (an important step). Cook pasta according to packaging.
- On medium heat, get a good swig of olive oil hot and add the smashed garlic clove.
- Cook veggies by adding them one at a time to the pan in order of density. (yes, there’s a little high school science in this one for you). Let each type of veggie get a little soft before adding the next one. The order I went in follows top to bottom in the ingredient list.
- When all the veggies are cooked in the pan and the pasta is done cooking, scoop out penne and add it to the veggie pan. (it’s a good thing if some pasta water lands in the pan too).
- Pour a shot’s worth of the leftover salted pasta water in the veggie pan and add lemon juice to the pan.
- Stir this up and it will create a light sauce that coats all the veggies and pasta nicely.
- Finish with salt, pepper and chopped herbs.
- Enjoy!
-Fiercely Freckled
