This simple, gorgeous ziti is only flavored by roasted vegetables and some salt, pepper, and a dash of basil. It calls for a lot of garlic, but once it’s roasted it creates a mild, almost sweet flavor that can’t compare to cooking garlic any other way.
8-10 cloves of garlic, ends removed (skins till in tact)
1/2 green pepper, sliced
1/2 red pepper, sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced
4-6 artichoke hearts, quartered
4 Roma tomatoes, whole
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 lb ziti, cooked according to package directions
2-3 cups fresh spinach, loosely packed
1/4 cup Calamata olives, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6-8 leaves of fresh basil, chopped, or 1 tsp dried basil
Sprinkle of red pepper flakes (optional)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange garlic in a small piece of tin foil and drizzle with about 1 tbsp olive oil. Gently close the tin foil around the garlic and place on a cookie sheet or roasting pan. Add the peppers, onion, artichokes, and tomatoes onto the cookie sheet or roasting pan, drizzle with the rest of the oil, and toss to coat. Roast for 20-30 minutes, stirring if needed, until veggies are cooked through and starting to brown around the edges. Remove from oven. Cut the tomatoes into chunks, and peel and chop the garlic (it should now come right out of the skins). Stir the roasted vegetables into the cooked ziti and add the spinach and olives. Reheat to cook spinach, about 2-3 minutes. Add salt, pepper, basil, and red pepper flakes if using. Additional olive oil can be added at this point if necessary. Serves 2-3.
Serving Suggestions:
- Roast a whole head of garlic and use the extra cloves to spread onto some Italian bread along with fresh basil and oregano.
hi! i stumbled upon your blog from some other vegan blog i can’s recall at the moment, but I’m glad I did! All your recipes seem so simple and easy to make without many specialty ingredients, yet so decadent and delicious. As a study abroad student in Scotland with a limited budget, that’s a good combo for me, so thanks! I’m now going through all your posts and bookmarking recipes, and this one particularly struck me as incredible in its time and effort to yumminess ratio (wow, how nerdy!) Anyways, I’ll def keep reading if you keep cooking!
–nora
hey nora!! thanks for all the kind words! this recipe is reallllly easy to make and super flexible too. you can basically throw any kind of veggie you want in there and it’ll come out great! another combo we do is zucchini and yellow squash, yellow peppers, onion, tomatoes, spinach, and of course the roasted garlic. super yummy!
thanks again and let us know if you have any questions about any of our recipes!