Happy Friday! I made us some pasta.
More specifically, I made us some herbed pasta with roasted zucchini and potatoes! I’m not entirely sure what it is about this pasta, but it strikes me as distinctly summery pasta…it could be the corn and zucchini (the power couple of summer vegetables, if you ask me), it could be the sweetly fragrant basil, or heck, it could just be the fact that it’s simple to make – and what is summer cooking all about if not simplicity?
If you happen to have a grill, I imagine this dish would be nothing short of phenomenal with grilled zucchini, potatoes, and corn. Alas, I personally do not have a grill…BUT roasted veggies are pretty awesome too, especially since you can just pop them in the oven and basically forget about them while you cook the pasta and do other stuff.
In other news, I bought a basil plant! I have the brownest thumb of anyone I know, so it’ll be interesting to see how long this lasts. I once inadvertently killed a miniature ivy plant, the most robust plant known to mankind. Yeahhh…but at least if this plant doesn’t survive, I can probably just blame it on a caprese addiction, right?
So anyhow, dish up a big bowl of this herbed pasta with roasted—or grilled!—zucchini and potatoes for yourself, and I hope you have a lovely weekend!
- 3/4 pound ziti or similar pasta
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 8 ounces fingerling potatoes, scrubbed and halved lengthwise
- 1 large zucchini, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 3/4 cup ricotta
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon dried dill weed
- 1 1/2 cups corn
- 6 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into bite-sized pieces (goat cheese would also work nicely)
- 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, torn or chopped
- salt
- pepper
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Toss the zucchini pieces and halved potatoes with the olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Place on a rimmed baking sheet, and once the oven has preheated to temperature, bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and use a spatula to turn over the zucchini and potatoes, then return to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes.
- While the zucchini and potatoes are roasting, cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. When draining the pasta, reserve 3/4 cup of the pasta water.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of the pasta water and the ricotta until smooth. Add more of the water if the mixture is too thick to coat the pasta. Stir in the lemon juice and dill weed.
- In a large bowl, toss together the pasta, zucchini, potatoes, corn, and ricotta mixture. Top with fresh mozzarella and basil leaves. Serve immediately.
- I used non-fat ricotta because that’s what I had in the fridge, but I wished I had used regular (or better yet, homemade!), because the consistency is really quite different. Depending on what type of ricotta you choose, you may not need to use as much pasta water to make the sauce liquid-y enough to coat the pasta.
Yum! This looks delicious – your cheese maker grandfather would be proud.
Indeed, I thought of him when I was making that homemade ricotta a while back 🙂
That looks so lovely and summery 🙂 Thanks for sharing with Cheese, Please! this month. Good luck with the basil… 😉
My pleasure! Thanks, I’ll need some luck with the basil 🙂
I bought a basil plant this year too!
Awesome! The plants just looked so much greener and more flavorful than the packages or bunches, I couldn’t resist…
I love all the flavors in this pasta! We have a lot of zucchini from our garden right now so this recipe is perfect for me. I have used the zucchini in a lot of different ways, but haven’t roasted it yet. I don’t know why, because I love roasted vegetables. Thanks for helping me out with my zucchini overload!:)
Oh gosh, it’s always tough to keep up with the supply of homegrown zucchini, isn’t it?! I hope you get a chance to make this 🙂
Loved this pasta and the ingredients are very interesting!
Thank you!
You are welcome! 🙂
I don’t know why, but I always wander over to your blog in the middle of the night when I’m hungry haha. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever mixed potatoes with pasta. I don’t know why, because that sounds delicious!
Haha, oh no! Should I post some late-night snack recipes then? I haven’t really mixed potatoes and pasta much before either – I think it’s because they’re both carbs, but at the same time, potatoes on pizza are becoming more popular, so why not with pasta?
Um, yes please.
I’m so annoyed that I didn’t see this post before doing the meal planning/ shopping for the week. Now I have to wait a whole week to try it! Woe is me!
This looks so summery and yummy. Ricotta is one of my top 5 favorite cheeses and doesn’t come up in nearly enough recipes. This looks just amazing.
Oh no! Well, I hope it lives up to your expectations after a week of anticipation 🙂 Ricotta really is a rather over-looked cheese – I’m quite fond of it as well!
Yum! I love roasted veggies in pasta, but oddly enough I’ve never added roasted taters—great idea! Plus, this looks like the type of pasta that would be awesome warm, cold, and anywhere in between 😉
Thanks! I can attest that this pasta is, in fact, yummy at any temperature 🙂
I can’t remember ever mixing pasta with potatoes. I will definitely try this recipe to find out how it tastes!
I hope you like it! I do recommend that you only make as much as you’ll eat for dinner that night – the roasted zucchini and potatoes aren’t so great in leftovers.
Herbed pasta with zucchini and potatoes can be perfect for my son’s birthday tomorrow. Thanks for giving me a brilliant idea.
No problem! I hope you all enjoy it 🙂