Roasted Vegetable Spaghetti

Everyone knows learning to cook like a grown-up takes a bit of practice when you're first on your own. When I first went to college a little over a decade ago (Holy Toledo time flies!) I had few specialties. I pretty much sustained life off of bananas, granola bars, Annie's macaroni and cheese with broccoli mixed in. I remember offering to cook dinner for a few friends freshman year, and being of little cooking skill as well as funds, I wracked my brain to think of the easiest thing to make on the cheap. "Ramen noodles with toast probably doesn't impress anyone..." I remember thinking to myself in the soup aisle at Cub foods... And I'm sure that's what we all lived on at the time anyway.

So I went with a food that's pretty hard to mess up, and most everyone loves: spaghetti and garlic bread. And so it became the first food I really learned how to cook decently, as I made it weekly on Saturdays for years with the same group of friends. While the first batch all those years ago was a can of Ragu and some veggies and a box of Texas Toast, it's evolved into many an incantation, but it remains my favorite comfort food of all time, and a dinner party go-to.

Roasted Vegetable Spathetti

Veggies:

-2 portobello mushroom caps, brushed, chopped and cleaned

-2 small zucchini, sliced 

-1 small green or yellow pepper, sliced

-1 medium yellow onion, diced

-3 cloves garlic, minced

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss all veggies with 1 t. olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast 15 minutes or until cooked.

Sauce:

-`1/4 cup  olive oil

-1 small onion, diced

-4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

-3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried

-1/2 medium carrot, finely grated

-2 (28-ounce) cans peeled whole tomatoes, crushed  and juices reserved

-pinch of salt

Directions

In a 3-quart saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until soft and golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the thyme and carrot, and cook 5 minutes more, until the carrot is quite soft. Add the tomatoes and juice and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until as thick as hot cereal. Season with salt and serve over noodles.

-1 package spaghetti noodles, cooked to al dente

-fresh basil leaves and parmesan cheese to garnish

*makes 5 servings

The roasted vegetables have a great depth of flavor, and a heaping pinch of parmesan and some fresh basil are the cherry on top of this lovely spin on classic spaghetti. 

This is one of the dishes me and the fiance' disagree on, because I love it made vegetarian, and he wants it  with the Italian sausage aplenty, so we alternate which recipe we make. Enjoy!!