Savouring 2012

It's the first day of a brand new calendar year, however unlike my school days, a new year means little besides switching my desk calendar to a brand new one (I think I'm going with a word a day calendar this year...) as everything else remains the same. Mayhaps I'll start tracking a change in calendar years based on my birthday. Every 22nd September will mark a new year, otherwise it's business as usual, peeps!

However, I do have one thing I'm going to try and promise, or rather suggest... this First of January 2012: Share more savoury recipes in addition to the desserts. I love my desserts and sweet things, but my younger brother called me Jelly Belly the other day... which I don't appreciate. So it's time to cut down on my sugar intake (and make everyone else around me eat more of those) and find alternative, healthy (... ish) staple foods.

For this first time, I'm going to share my go-to lazy pasta lunch or weeknight dinner recipe. This is suuuuper yummy, and contains all my favourite tastes, and I've been whipping up variations of it since my uni days. It can be eaten hot or cold, though I prefer it right off the hob, sometimes I'll pack the leftovers in a container to be taken to lunch at work the next day.

Pasta and butter, trick I picked up from Jess

Roast Vegetable Pasta 

• 2 cups (or thereabouts) of instant pasta (I like Fusilli, though it's your choice)
• 1 eggplant, sliced thinly
• 1 zucchini (though for the pictured dish, I used japanese cucumber due to lack of resources)
• 1 cup of cherry tomatoes (you may use 3 normal tomatoes, quartered), sliced in half
• 2 sundried tomatoes, diced 
• 1/2 cup pitted olives, sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced or crushed
• 1/3 cup olive oil (plus extra for drizzling at the end)
• 1/4 cup red wine balsamic vinegar (plus extra for drizzling at the end)
• 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Preheat your oven to 180C 
2. Slice and dice your vegetables of choice, and place them in a baking tin (mine pictured here is ugly and dented and probably as old as I am... which isn't very old at all), pour over the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and salt and pepper
3. Then get in there with your hands (wash them first, you dirty wee scrag) and toss them around to ensure every slice of vegetable gets a good coating of the "dressing" 
4. Pop the tin in the oven and allow it to roast for a good 20 minutes, or until the vegetables get toasty around the edges. Yum. 
5. While waiting for the veggies to roast, boil the pasta in salted water, then upon draining the water when it's done, toss in a sliver of butter to mix with the hot pasta. I assure you it smells SO good, you'll be salivating at this point
6. Pour the prepared pasta into a medium sized serving bowl or plate, followed by the roasted vegetables then toss to mix. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and season to taste
7. In the wise words of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore: Tuck in! 

I've really got to start writing proper instructions, without the constant commentary. On those nights when you've just about dragged yourself home from the office, are too lazy to defrost a chicken breast or even order take out, this is the perfect recipe to quell the hunger with. 

Hope you enjoy it, and happy new calendar year! 

x Nabs