Roasted Garlic Oil Pasta

Once again I'm sorry for the long delay between posts, dear readers. This delay was due to two primary forces. First, my computer was moving so slowly that I honestly couldn't have more than one program open at a time or type quickly because it was generally about a sentence behind me. Ugh. Second, at the end of July I left to go to Spain with some faculty colleagues. Together, the 9 of us walked part of the Camino de Santiago, publicized recently by the movie The Way. We were gone for 12 days, and when we got back, it was directly into retreats and workshops and meetings for the start of the semester.

Now, I'm mostly ready for the semester to start and we have a couple of days without full-day meetings planned. Thus, it's a perfect time to update you on some of the light and easy things we've been eating throughout this past summer. First up is a ridiculously easy dinner that requires just a tiny bit of planning: roasted garlic oil pasta.

I'd been wanting a pasta dish with something on it, but didn't want something creamy and just wasn't feeling like making my red sauce. As I was looking around my kitchen, I realized we had a ton of garlic, and that's when this dish came together. It was a perfect dinner for a summer night because it didn't heat up my kitchen and didn't sit heavily in my stomach. Plus, I'm sure you could put in any number of fresh summer veggies and it would be delicious!

Roasted Garlic Oil Pasta
Ingredients
2 whole heads of garlic
3/4 c. light-tasting oil
1 tsp. salt (more or less, to taste)
8 oz. dried pasta
3-4 c. chopped veggies of choice

Directions
1. With the heads of garlic intact, cut off the tops so that parts of each clove are showing. Also remove any very loose outer layers.
2. Put the heads of garlic on foil and liberally douse them with oil. Wrap up the foil around the cloves and bake at 400 until fragrant and very soft (see Helpful Hints).
3. Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to package directions.
4. When the pasta is 3-4 minutes from done, add the veggies and continue to cook.
5. In a small food processor or blender, squeeze the cloves of garlic from the papers and add the oil, salt, and pepper. If there is excess oil from roasting, add that as well. Process until combined.
6. Drain the pasta/veggies and then pour the oil over the top. Stir to combine.

Helpful Hints

• The exact shape of the pasta you use doesn't really matter. I used whole wheat penne because it's one of the shapes we had that I knew would hold the oil well. Use what you'd like, but make sure it will hold some of the oil!
• You can use fresh or frozen veggies, or any combination of them that you like. I used fresh broccoli, cauliflower, and carrot, but frozen peas. 
• I use my toaster oven when I roast garlic. It's just the right size and it doesn't give off nearly as much heat. 

The post "Roasted Garlic Oil Pasta" first appeared on Maggie's LesVegan Kitchen.