Herbed Vegetable Pasta

Makes 4 servings. Takes about 60 minutes to prepare

Equipment

  • Boiling pot
  • Sautee pan
  • Cutting board
  • Sharp knife
  • Microplane or zester
  • Strainer
  • Whisk
  • Stirring spoon

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces pasta
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 eggplant
  • 2 summer squash
  • 1 lemon
  • 3 tablespoons (45 grams) unsalted margarine
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 3 large or 5 skinny scallions (or leeks or small onions instead)
  • 3 tablespoons (25 grams) whole wheat flour
  • 1.5 cups almond milk
  • Handful of fresh mint
  • Handful of fresh bazil
  • 1/3 tablespoon dried oregon
  • Salt and more pepper to taste
  • 3/4 cup finely grated parmesan
  • 4 ounces (115 grams) mozzarella
  • 1 Lemon
  • 1/2 tablespoon red pepper

Instructions

Heat Oven

Turn oven on to bake at 400° F

Lemon Prep

  1. Grate the peel from the entirety of 1 lemon
  2. Juice half the lemon

Prepare Cheese

  1. Grate parmesean, separate 1/4 cup from the batch
  2. Cut mozzarella into small cubes

Prepare Pasta

  1. Boil water in boiling pot
  2. Add pasta to boiling water
  3. Add some salt
  4. Boil pasta 1-2 minutes short of the what the pasta’s packaging suggests
  5. Pour pasta into a strainer

Prepare Primary Vegetables

  1. Cut eggplant and squash into half moon shapes. Try keep them the same size so that they cook at a similar speed.
  2. Sautee the vegetables for ~10 minutes on medium heat.Stir sparingly, so that they get brown at the bottom.
  3. When vegetables are brown, but not limp, scrape them out of the sautee pan into normal temperated bowl
  4. Squeeze lemon juice over them
  5. Add salt as needed

Make Herbs

  1. Dice mint into little bits
  2. Dice bazil into little bits

Prepare Sauce

These are mostly for the sauce.

  1. Cut off an inch off the top of the scallions
  2. Chop what’s left into small slices
  3. Mince the garlic
  4. Melt the margaine in the sautee pan
  5. Add garlic and scallions to sautee pan
  6. Sautee until soft, probably 3-5 minutes. Stir frequently.
  7. Sprinkle in flour 1 tablespoon at a time, until all mixed in
  8. Pour in almond milk in little pours (no more than a few tablespoons at a time), and whisk to incorporate before adding more. Do this until you’re out of almond milk.
  9. Turn off heat for sautee pan
  10. Add herbs, lemon zest, red pepper, and oregono.
  11. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  12. Add 2/3 of the parmesean to the sauce

Combine and Bake

  1. Put squash and eggplant into the sauce sautee pan
  2. Add pasta to the sauce sautee pan
  3. Mix
  4. Add mozzarella cubes
  5. Sprinkle the remaining parmeasean on top
  6. Place in the oven, and bake until the sauce is bubbly and the edges of the pasta are crispy (~20-25 minutes, if not baked by then, try the broiler for a few minutes)

* Carli adapted this from another recipe, mostly changing some of the ingredients.