Roasted Summer Vegetable Rigatoni

Hello, welcome! Today’s recipe was originally intended to feature grilled vegetables, but with the heavy thunderstorm activity in Athens lately, I roasted the veggies in the oven. If the weather is cooperative for you, go with grilling the veggies! This is a flexible dish that can be served hot, room temperature or cold. With a variety of flavors and textures, this dish has a ton of character that you can customize to what you have in the fridge. Are you ready for Roasted Summer Vegetable Rigatoni – let’s do it!

Roasting the Veggies

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Position one oven rack in the lower-middle position, and one rack in the upper-middle position. We have summer squash, red peppers, ripe tomatoes and scallions. Feel free to mix it up with zucchini, yellow or orange peppers, a red or yellow onion would be great too.

I want the veggies to maintain some texture, so I will roast them mostly intact – only halving the squash and the peppers. Halving them opens up their surface area to get some good charring to mimic the grill. I have large tomatoes so I have quartered them, but cherry tomatoes would be great to use in this recipe.

I trimmed the scallions but have left them whole. Place all the cut veggies on a rimmed sheet tray and drizzle with olive oil. Use a brush to evenly coat the veggies in the olive oil. Sprinkle with Kosher slat and fresh cracked black pepper.

Roast the veggies on the lower-middle rack for 20-30 minutes, until some nice browning begins to develop and the veggies are releasing their juices. While the veggies are roasting, we can make the zesty dressing.

The Dressing

This is a simple zesty Italian dressing. We will just shake the ingredients in a little jar to mix.

We have red wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic salt, celery salt, black pepper and Dijon mustard. I like a more vinegary dressing, so I have 2 tablespoons olive oil and 3 tablespoons vinegar. You can go 1:1 if you like. Start with one teaspoon Dijon and 1/4 teaspoon each garlic salt, celery salt and black pepper. Shake all of these ingredients in a little jar and taste it, adding more of anything you think it needs.

When the veggies have roasted on the lower-middle rack for about 20 minutes, switch the oven to broil and transfer the veggies to the upper-middle rack. To get a little more browning, we will broil the veggies just until they get a bit more charring. only about 3-5 minutes. But watch it like a hawk. They will go fast. I did not watch it like a hawk, and my scallion greens went too far. I should have pulled the scallions off earlier because the rest of the veggies are looking great after about 4 minutes.

Let the veggies cool on the sheet tray while we get the water going for the pasta. bring 6 quarts of salted water to boil and cook one pound of rigatoni for about 10-12 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent sticking. Test for al dente doneness and when you’re there, drain the pasta and drizzle with a little olive oil. Toss to coat the pasta in the olive oil and let it sit in the colander while we cut the veggies.

Building the Roasted Summer Vegetable Rigatoni

When you take everything off of the sheet tray, set it aside, but hang on to the juices from the roasted veggies, we will pour that juice onto the salad before we dress it. I have discarded the most charred scallion greens, then I sliced everything into bite-sized pieces.

Transfer the pasta to a large mixing bowl and toss all the veggies into the same bowl. Add an 8-ounce package of mozzarella pearls. Give the whole thing a few gentle stirs to incorporate the veggies and cheese with the Rigatoni.

Dress the Pasta and Veggies

Pour the juices from the sheet tray over the mixture and the pour on the dressing (use the whole jar of dressing). Gently toss to coat everything in the dressing.

Transfer the Roasted Summer Vegetable Rigatoni to a large serving bowl and top with fresh basil leaves. Alternatively you can use chopped flat leaf parsley. I like the sweet flavor the basil brings to the pasta party.

Portion into wide shallow bowls and top each serving with fresh cracked pepper, flaky finishing salt and a few more basil leaves. Add fresh grated parmesan if you like.

This is such a well-balanced dish: the combination of textures varies with the soft and juicy tomatoes; the summer squash still has a bit of crunch to its exterior and the pasta is tender and bouncy. The mozzarella pearls add nice bit of extra richness and roasted red pepper is sweet and punchy. Since we seasoned every element of this recipe, the result is a deeply flavored dish that lets the flavors of the veggies shine.

I do hope you give this easy summer dish a try, it’s perfect for Sunday Supper, you can make it ahead, and it travels well. So versatile with great flavor and a satisfying finish. Catch up on any Sunday Suppers you may have missed and remember you can find me on Instagram and Pinterest too! Take care and be well, xo Kelly

Print Recipe

Roasted Summer Vegetable Rigatoni

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading...

Dinner, Main Course, side dish – Italian

By Kelly Djalali – Serves: 2-4

Prep Time: 10 Minutes – Cooking Time: 20-30 MInutes – Total Time: 30-40 Minutes

A well-balanced dish: the textures and flavors vary with the soft, juicy tomatoes; summer squash and roasted red pepper, dressed in zesty dressing.

Ingredients

• Roasted Vegetables
• 2 Summer Squash, halved lengthwise
• 2 large Red Peppers, halved lengthwise
• 2-3 large Tomatoes, cored and quartered
• 1 bunch Scallions, trimmed
• Drizzle of Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt and Black Pepper
• Dressing
• 2 tbsp. Olive Oil
• 3 tbsp. Red Wine Vinegar
• 1 tsp. Dijon Mustard
• 1/4 tsp. Garlic Salt
• 1/4 tsp. Celery Salt
• 1/4 tsp. Fresh Cracked Black Pepper
• Roasted Summer Vegetable Rigatoni
• 1 lb. Rigatoni
• 1 8-oz package Mozzarella Pearls
• Fresh Basil Leaves
• Flaky Finishing Salt
• Fresh Cracked Black Pepper

Instructions

Roasted Vegetables

1

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Position one rack on the lower-middle position and one rack on the upper-middle position.

2

Placed prepped veggies on a rimmed sheet tray and drizzle with olive oil. Use a brush to evenly coat cut-side of veggies with olive oil.

3

Sprinkle with Kosher salt and pepper.

4

Roast veggies on lower-middle rack for 20-30 minutes, until veggies release their juices and get some light browning.

5

Then, switch oven to broil and transfer the rack to the upper-middle position and broil for 3-5 minutes, until some charring is visible on the cut side of the veggies.

6

Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Dressing

7

Shake all of the dressing ingredients in a little jar and taste it, adding more of anything you think it needs.

Roasted Summer Vegetable Rigatoni

8

Bring 6 quarts of salted water to boil and cook Rigatoni for 10-12 minutes, until al dente.

9

Drain pasta and toss with a little olive oil in a colander, set aside.

10

Reserve pan juices and slice roasted veggies into bite-size pieces.

11

Transfer Rigatoni to a large mixing bowl and toss gently with roasted veggie pieces.

12

Add mozzarella pearls and juices from the sheet pan, pour dressing over mixture and gently toss to coat everything in the dressing.

13

Transfer vegetable and Rigatoni mixture to a serving bowl and top with fresh basil leaves.

14

Serve in shallow bowls and top with flaky finishing salt, black pepper and more basil leaves.