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Sundried Tomato Pesto Pasta Salad
This summery pasta salad is loaded with roasted peppers, courgettes and aubergines, as well as fresh baby spinach. It’s dressed with a delicious sundried tomato pesto that combines sundried tomatoes, grana padano cheese, pine nuts, basil, garlic and olive oil. Making your own sundried tomato pesto from scratch is easy and takes less than 15 minutes! But if for whatever reason you can’t make your own, this recipe is delicious with shop-bought pesto too.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Pasta, Vegetarian
Ingredients
Scale
For the roasted vegetables:
- 4 red sweet pointed peppers (Romano peppers), sliced
- 2 medium courgettes, diced into 1cm-cubes (approx.)
- 2 small aubergines, diced into 1cm-cubes (approx.)
- 2 tbsps extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 tsps balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsps dried Italian herbs
For the pasta salad:
- 500 g dried pasta of choice
- 100 g baby spinach, roughly chopped
- 20 g fresh basil leaves, finely sliced
- 200 g Sundried Tomato Pesto, or more (to taste)
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 230℃ /fan 210℃. Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper.
- Place the peppers, courgettes and aubergines in a large bowl. Add the extra-virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and dried Italian herbs. Season with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper and toss to combine.
- Arrange the vegetables in a single layer on the baking tray. Roast, tossing once halfway through, until cooked and slightly browned, 15 to 20 minutes.
- While the vegetables are in the oven, cook the pasta in generously salted water according to package instructions. You want the pasta to be cooked through, not al dente, as pasta hardens up when cold.
- While the pasta is cooking, make the sundried tomato pesto, if using homemade pesto. If not, you can use shop-bought pesto.
- Drain the pasta, rinse under cold water, and drain again. This helps remove some of the starch, which will make the pasta less gummy as it cools.
- Transfer the drained pasta to a bowl, add the roasted vegetables, baby spinach, basil and pesto to the pasta and stir to combine. Taste and season with salt and pepper, to taste, then serve.
I excluded the eggplant, loved every bite.
So happy to hear it!
This was so quick and tasty to put together. Would have never thought of roasting veggies in balsamic but it absolutely MAKES this dish!!! Such a great idea 🙂
It’s a game changer! So glad you enjoyed it 🙂
This was so yummy, super quick and easy to put together. The Balsamic absolutely makes this dish and I would have never before thought to roast the veggies in balsamic thanks so much for the idea 🙂
It’s my absolute pleasure! I’m so glad you enjoyed it 🙂