Vegan Pasta Dish

Vegan Pasta Dish

A few years ago I went to visit a friend in Syracuse. One of those nights we went out to dinner. At the time it was the season of lent and I was doing a vegan lent- I cheated a bit but I tried to be as meat and dairy free as possible for those 40 days. Anyway this restaurant had a pasta dish with tomato sauce, roasted red pepper, fresh basil and broccoli and I LOVED it. So the next time I was home, my mom and I attempted to make it and it's still a dish that I make today. The actual restaurant used a cream tomato sauce but this recipe won't show that. You can however add some heavy cream to the tomato sauce on your own to make up for it. This is a quick recipe if you use store bought sauce rather than making it your own. I unfortunately don't ever have time to make my mother's homemade sauce and this is always a weeknight dish which makes that even more difficult. 

Also- a lot of the things Francis and I make are used for leftovers, so you will be surprised to see real true measurements. If you don't want leftovers, I would suggest going by the serving sizes on the boxes. 

Ingredients:

Roasted Red Pepper (as much as you would like)- I like the deli strip kind of this recipe

Pasta- I've been using gluten free but any works

1 summer squash

1 zucchini

broccoli (as desired, I don't love broccoli so I don't usually use a lot)

Pasta, tomato sauce (either homemade or bought) 

Basil

Olive Oil

Parmesan Cheese (if you don't want this to be Vegan)

PS: this new Ronzoni Gluten Free Pasta is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

Directions:

1.) simmer olive oil in a skillet and add squash and zucchini, lower to medium and cook until they are soft (this will probably take awhile)

2.) Boil water for the pasta (following the directions on the box) add the pasta and cook until it's to your tasting

3.) Boil some water in a smaller sauce pan, once boiled add the broccoli

4.) Once the pasta is in, add the sauce to a pan and heat on medium-low

This will probably take awhile, it usually takes me about 20mins for both the squash, zucchini and pasta to be how I would like but all this depends on your tasting. Once everything is to your desire continue on

5.) Drain the pasta and broccoli

6.) Mix the broccoli, pasta, zucchini and squash together 

7.) Add the roasted red peppers and basil to the dish of pasta and mix

8.) I usually add the pasta sauce next so it's all in one pan, however this is up to you. Some people don't want as much sauce as others, so it's all up to you on if you want to add that or leave it separate. 

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the final product, I could have sworn I did but I can't seem to find it so come back soon and one will be posted!