Pasta with roasted vegetables

From Winter 2009

This is a great recipe for using up leftover pasta and lonely vegetables in your fridge. I threw this together for lunch yesterday and it took 30 minutes, 20 of which was me sitting by the cozy oven reading a book (for pleasure! Can you believe it?).

I was in the mood to eat something light before all the holiday gorging began, and was fumbling in the fridge for veggies. There were two carrots leftover from a salad and half an onion wrapped up in tinfoil that clearly no one was going to bother with. There was also a tomato sitting on the counter. So I cut up the veggies (cut the carrots on the small side for shorter cooking time, and yeees I know tomatoes are fruits technically), tossed them in olive oil, a little salt (little! A lot of flavor comes out once you roast them and you don't need that much salt) and pepper. Although feel free to be generous with the oil as the onions burn easily. Spread them out on a cookie sheet and bake them at 375-400 degrees for about 15 minutes. While those are baking, toss some cooked pasta (we had some cooked penne leftover from last night) in a little olive oil and herbs (I used thyme), throw them in with the veggies, and cook until the pasta is heated through and the carrots are tender.

And that's it! Instant deliciousness.

From Winter 2009