Roasted Asparagus and Tomato Pasta

This pasta dish is nice and light for spring and summer. Tossed with roasted asparagus, tomatoes and garlic. Mixed around in a light pesto sauce.

Roasted asparagus and tomato pasta is the perfect dish for the upcoming pesto season. I love growing fresh basil in my garden come spring/summer. You know what that means…no more store bought pesto. I can finally make my own soon!

Whenever I make pasta dishes in the spring and summer, I usually almost always use pesto as my sauce. The flavors just scream summer, and it is nice and light. It also isn’t as thick as a marinara sauce, so it doesn’t hold all of that hot heat in. Thats the last thing I want to eat on a warm summers night.

Roasted asparagus is delicious on its own, but it gives this pasta dish the perfect mix in flavor and crunch. I know its personal preference on how people like their asparagus done. Soft, tender, hard, crunchy. I usually like mine soft with a little crunch, but for this dish, I purposely over cooked the asparagus.

If you’ve read my previous recipe posts involving roasted garlic, you probably know my obsession for it. The scent it gives off while its roasting, and the flavors it has to offer.

Mixing roasted garlic in my pasta dishes is my new favorite thing. If you are a roasted garlic newbie, let me just tell you…when you roast garlic in the oven, something amazing happens. It turns into these soft, buttery cloves that you can spread like butter. So when you mix it in with your pasta, it blends around very well.

It’s crazy what a little basil leaf for garnish will do to your mind. Before I added the garnish on top, my serving dish just looked like a pile of pasta mixed with roasted veggies…nothing special. But when I added the garnish on top, my opinion changed immediately…I then saw a pasta dish you would order at an Italian bistro, and I couldn’t wait to dig in!

It’s totally optional to add the garnish, but if you are making this dish for guests, I would absolutely recommend adding the garnish. It will add the “wow” factor for your guests when they see it. Who doesn’t like a little garnish?

Enjoy!

Check out my recipe for one pan roasted gnocchi & vegetables : https://thehungrylyoness.com/recipe/one-pan-roasted-gnocchi-vegetables/

Roasted Asparagus and Tomato Pasta

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Servings 4 People

Ingredients

  

• 16 OZ. Pasta, any kind
• 1 Cup Cherry Tomatoes, roasted
• 1 Bunch Asparagus, roasted Cut your asparagus into threes
• 1 Bulb Garlic, roasted
• 1/4 Cup Pesto
• Fresh Basil Leaves, for garnish (optional)
• Salt, to taste

Instructions

 

• You want to roast your garlic first. This takes the longest. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. You can either roast entire garlic bulb which takes a little longer to cook (see notes on how to) or your can take each garlic clove out of skin and roasting them tossed in olive oil. See notes.
• While garlic is roasting, toss asparagus and tomatoes in olive oil and salt.
• On a large non stick lined baking sheet, dump tomatoes and asparagus. Place in oven while garlic is roasting and roast for about 10-15 minutes. When asparagus and tomatoes start to turn golden brown they are done.
• While your veggies and garlic is roasting, cook pasta according to package directions.
• When pasta is done, toss with pesto so it doesn't stick while waiting for veggies garlic to be done. Make sure to cover pasta so it stays warm.
• When garlic is done, take out and smash it with a fork. Add to pasta, along with veggies.
• Toss everything around until everything is distributed well.
• Sprinkle with some parmesan cheese. Garnish with basil leaf. Enjoy!

Notes

How to roast an entire bulb of garlic in oven: https://sweetpeasandsaffron.com/roasted-garlic-recipe/

How to roast peeled garlic cloves:

• Rip off each garlic clove from bulb. Take a wide knife, facing flat part down on top of garlic bulb, take your palm and bang on top of flattened knife. That releases the garlic from skin easily.
• Take a large piece of tin foil, fold it up so it has walls and enough left to crinkle up at top to make a "roof". 
• Place skinless garlic cloves in tin foil, drizzle with garlic, crinkle tin foil at top so garlic is completely covered.
• Bake in 450 preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until garlic becomes fragrant and starts to turn brown.