Roasted Vegetables and Whole Wheat Pasta Bake

Inspiration from Apple A Day’s blog, who adapted from Giada DeLaurentiis.

Ingredients:


2 small to medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and chopped (about 1.5 cups)
1 small or half a large yellow squash, quartered lengthwise and chopped (2- 2 1/2 cups)
1 ½ cups fresh mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small yellow or red onion, chopped (about ¾ cup)
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed and divided
2 ½ Tbsp. olive oil
Herbs de Provence (see notes), ground, to taste
4 cups whole wheat penne or fusilli pasta
¼ cup whole wheat Italian style bread crumbs, divided
2 ½ cups marinara sauce
1 ¼ cups low moisturized, part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
½ cup shredded parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro or parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Sprinkle red pepper flakes, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a shallow jellyroll pan with foil and lightly coat with olive oil spray.
2. Chop vegetables and combine in a large bowl. Add olive oil, 1 crushed garlic clove, salt & pepper to taste, and herbs de provence to cover the vegetables. Stir until sufficiently coated with oil (should be light on the oil). Spread vegetables on prepared jellyroll pan and roast in the oven for about 15 min. or until tender.
3. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil and cook the pasta for about 6-8 min. and drain. Pasta should still be tough in the middle since it will bake in the oven.
4. While the pasta is cooking, spray a 9x13 baking dish with olive oil spray. Add 2 Tbsp bread crumbs to bottom and shake to evenly distribute.
5. In a large bowl, stir together the roasted vegetables and cooked pasta. Mix in marinara, additional 2-3 cloves crushed garlic, remaining 2 Tbsp bread crumbs, ½ cup mozzarella and cilantro/parsley. Add a dash of salt & black pepper to taste. Sprinkle in some crushed red pepper flakes for a bit of spice kick.
6. Add entire pasta mixture to prepared 9x13 baking dish. Cover with remaining ¾ cup mozzarella and 1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese. Top with freshly cracked pepper.
7. Bake uncovered 25 minutes or until cheese is golden brown on top

Makes 8 servings. Approximately 7 WW points per serving.


Notes and review:

I meant to use red onion for this dish but they weren’t very good at the store and I had yellow in stock. Either will work fine, depending on your preference.

Herbs de Provence can sometimes be hard to find in the store. I usually purchase them in France, but have seen them in some stores. If you can’t find them, you can mix your own.

I would have preferred to do a homemade marinara sauce with this but I didn’t have time. I recommend using a marinara with basil, as it added some great flavor. If using a sauce without basil, I would add 1-2 tsp. dried basil when mixing the pasta, vegetables and sauce together.

I had fresh cilantro in stock which ended up being an amazing flavor booster to this dish. I highly recommend using cilantro. Parsley can be common in Italian-style dishes, so is also a likely choice, especially since cilantro tends to be a “love it or hate it” kind of spice.

Overall this was a GREAT pasta dish. It would be perfect as a family dinner or even for a casual dinner party. Awesome flavors and the herbs de provence were a great addition to the roasted vegetables. The blog’s recipe I referenced at the top of this entry used bell peppers. I decided to substitute yellow squash since I had it on hand and love them with zucchini. Bell peppers would be a good substitution for another vegetable in the dish if someone doesn’t like one of the vegetables.

Enjoy!

~Chews Wisely

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