Delicious Creamy Vegetable Pasta
Roasted tomatoes give this creamy vegetable pasta just the right kick, with peas and spinach making this a well-rounded dish that everyone will love!
Ingredients
TOMATOES
- 9 Roma tomatoes (or 2 lbs), washed
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 ½ teaspoons thyme
- 1 ½ teaspoons basil
- 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
PASTA + SAUCE
- 1 pound pasta (farfalle, rotini, etc)
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 6 tablespoons flour
- 3 cups milk
- ¾ teaspoon thyme
- 1 ¼ teaspoons basil
- ⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ¾ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 ¼ cups frozen or canned peas
- 1 cup roughly chopped spinach
Instructions
TOMATOES
- Preheat the oven to 450. Quarter the tomatoes by cutting them in half lengthwise and then cutting each half again, lengthwise. Roughly chop each quarter into three pieces and put all of the pieces into a medium mixing bowl. To the mixing bowl of tomatoes, add in the oil, vinegar, and minced garlic and stir. In a separate small bowl, combine the spices and stir to mix them together. Add the spices to the bowl with the tomatoes and stir well to coat the tomatoes.
- Spread the tomatoes out on a large UNGREASED baking sheet, and bake in 450 oven for 24-28 minutes, or until they are crisping around the edges. Set aside. NOTE: do NOT grease the baking sheet or use any sort of foil/parchment paper/silicon baking mat. The tomatoes must be roasted directly on the pan in order to crisp up.
PASTA + SAUCE
- Put a large pot of water to boil over high heat. Once the water is boiling, add pasta and cook per instructions on the pasta packaging, draining when it’s fully cooked. Set aside.
- Over medium heat, melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Once the butter is melted, stir in the flour to make a paste. Allow flour and butter to cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring often to prevent burning.
- Slowly add milk to the butter and flour paste, whisking the mixture to get rid of any clumps. Stir in the thyme, basil, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Continue to whisk until the texture is mostly smooth. Turn up the heat to medium high to encourage thickening, stirring frequently. Once sauce begins to thicken, continue to stir and allow it to thicken for another 4-5 minutes, until it’s roughly the consistency of a gravy. Remove pan from heat.
- Add the roasted tomatoes and the sauce to the pasta and stir to combine. Once sauce and tomatoes are fully incorporated into pasta, add peas and spinach and stir for 2-3 minutes until the peas are heated through and the spinach is wilted. Enjoy!