One tray roast vegetable pasta sauce

Roasted garlic is the secret to an easy but spectacular vegetable pasta sauce.

Credit: Donal's Meals in Minutes

• serves

  2

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  30 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 200 g cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 small eggplant (aubergine), cut into 2cm cubes
• 1 zucchini (courgetti), cut into 2cm cubes
• 1 red onion, quartered but roots left intact
• 1 head garlic, top sliced off 
• ¼ cup (60 ml)  olive oil
• 1½ tbsp (30 ml) balsamic vinegar
• sea salt
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 200 g penne
• parmesan shavings, to serve
• Large handful of basil leaves, to serve

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan-forced).
2. Arrange the tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, red onions and garlic in separate piles across a medium-sized roasting tin with high sides. Drizzle over the olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with sea salt and chilli fakes. Give each pile a good mix to make sure it’s all coated evenly, then place in the oven to roast on the middle shelf for 30 minutes.
3. About 10 minutes before the vegetables are finished cooking, cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water until al dente.
4. Remove the roasting tin from the oven and carefully squeeze the mushy garlic out of the skins on to the tomatoes; discard the skins. Using the back of a fork, mash down the garlic and tomatoes until combined. Add a ladle of the pasta cooking liquid to this and stir to make a sauce. Now mix all of the contents of the pan together and then pour in the drained pasta.
5. Add some generous shavings of parmesan and roughly tear in a few basil leaves. Toss everything together until well combined and serve hot, garnished with more parmesan shavings and basil leaves.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.