i'm in a pasta mood.

hooray for only having one class on thursdays!  this means i wander back home around 11am or so and have the entire afternoon to make a mess in the kitchen :]

today i went to my fresh veg drawer and grabbed a pint of grape tomatoes, a small zucchini, and a beautiful Listada eggplant.  my original idea was to roast these babies in the oven and spread them over crostini for a light lunch.  but then i heard my stomach growl loudly and realized that a light lunch wasn't gonna do it for me.  upon spotting some leftover penne pasta and (borrowing) some feta cheese from a roommate, inspiration called me to make a mediterranean masterpiece.

**side note on the pasta: the craze these days is to eat whole wheat or whole grain foods over foods made from refined flours.  i am alllllll about that.  i like a good crusty wheat loaf with seeds and grains in it as much as the next girl.  but as for pasta, it took me quite some time to find a brand that was palatable.  theres just something about whole wheat pasta that turns gummy or mushy that is not good eats to me.  the Barilla brand is acceptable for me to use in a pinch, but about a year ago i discovered the HOLY GRAIL of pastas: Ronzoni Smart Taste.  I just call it the "purple box" pasta so its easier to find in the grocery, haha.  it is a white pasta (gasp!) but side by side in the pasta aisle, it has more protein, more fiber (6 grams per serving!!) and is fortified with calcium and vitamin D, unlike traditional white or whole wheat pastas.  but best of all, it seriously tastes amazing.  no joke.  it cooks up like regular white pasta, tastes exactly the same, but gives you all the benefits of whole wheat.  try it.  really.  plus, theres a coupon on their website! **

now for the good stuff-- the food.  in a glass roasting dish, i put an entire pint of the grape tomatoes, diced the zucchini and eggplant in similar sized pieces, and gave the whole party a generous splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  toss with salt and pepper, and throw it in the oven at 350 for about half an hour, flipping the veg occasionally.  warning: your house will smell wonderful.

Before:

After:

once the veg was ready (aka the tomatoes had burst and the eggplant and zucchini were oh-so-tender), i heated up the leftover pasta in the microwave and got out my feta cheese.  i roasted off more veg than i needed, so i put all but a cup into a tupperware for a later date.  i tossed the warm pasta right in the roasting pan with the reserved cup of veg and tossed it around with just a sprinkle extra of salt.  at the very end, i took just shy of about an 1/8 c. of reduced-fat feta cheese and fluffed it in to my pasta.  (at this point, my stomach was not very happy with me and continued to growl at an obnoxious volume.)

all that was left was to plate it up and drizzle a touch of olive oil right over the top.  oh, and eat it of course :]

presento mi almuerzo divino:

Mediterranean Pasta Toss with Roasted Vegetables and Feta Cheese 

now go try the purple box pasta!