Pasta with roasted and pan fried vegetables and feta

This recipe is based on a Weight Watchers recipe. I left the chopped rosemary out as a my wife finds the herb tastes like floor cleaner. I disagree but, as I am cooking for both of us, I defer and leave it out.

I also added to the recipe eight very large mushrooms, chopped into eights, four chopped, green onions, a sprinkle of cajun spice flavouring and one minced hot red pepper fried in olive oil.

Ingredients:

2 small zucchini (I have used both green and yellow zucchini. I like this with either.)
1 red bell pepper sliced into long strips about a quarter of in inch wide
1 1/2 cups of grape tomatoes. Chop about half the tomatoes in half and leave the remainder whole.
2 tsps of chopped fresh rosemary if you like rosemary. Otherwise, leave this out.
2 medium garlic cloves, minced but not too fine
8 large, fresh mushrooms, chopped into eights
4 chopped green onions, keep some of the green stems for colour and flavour
Sprinkle of cajun spice
1 finely minced hot, red pepper
160 grams of rotini pasta
3 Tbsp of crumbles feta cheese

Directions:

Slice the red pepper into thick strips, about a quarter of an inch wide. Slice the zucchini into quarter inch thick disks. Toss both with a little olive oil, salt lightly and put all into a vegetable basket and place on a hot barbecue.

With the vegetables roasting, and a pot of water heating for the pasta, start prepping all the other ingredients: chop half the tomatoes in two, keep the other half intact, mince the 2 cloves of garlic, clean and chop the mushrooms into large chunks, chop the 4 green onions, finely mince the red, hot pepper and crumble 3 Tbsp. of feta cheese. Remember to flip the vegetable basket roasting on the barbecue if you haven't flipped it already. You do not want to burn the zucchini and the bell pepper. And start heating a little oil in a large fry pan.

By now the water should be boiling rapidly. Add the pasta to the boiling water. Now, dump the mushrooms into the pan of heated olive oil and begin pan frying them. Toss the mushroom chunks frequently. After about three minutes, push the mushrooms to the side and add the green onions. Fry for thirty seconds or so and then add the minced garlic. Do not let the garlic brown. You may find it necessary to add a few drops of oil to keep the onion/garlic frying and not burning. It will only take seconds to cook the garlic. Add the tomato, both the whole and halves, to the fry pan and toss all lightly.

Outside at the barbecue, sprinkle some cajun spice over the zucchini and red bell pepper. Keep the barbecue heat low. Inside, fry the finely minced hot, red pepper in a little oil. Don't burn. This only takes about thirty seconds.

The rotini should be done by now. Save a little pasta water, just in case, and drain the pasta. Add pasta to pan holding the fried mushrooms, tomatoes, green onions and garlic. Pour the mix of hot, red pepper and oil over the pan fried vegetables. Toss all lightly. If this is too dry, add a little pasta water. Now, add the zucchini and red, bell peppers from the barbecue. Toss all lightly and serve. At the table, add the crumbled feta cheese.

If you like rosemary, the addition of the rosemary adds a little extra depth and complexity. If you don't like hot, spicy food, take great care with the hot, red peppers. A one-inch pepper is enough for this entire dish for two. Too little red pepper is better than too much. If you'd like to add some extra flavour but no heat and no rosemary, I suggest adding an eighth of a cup of chopped sundried tomatoes to the chopped green onions when frying.

Judy and I had this tonight with a small glass of red wine. Don't laugh but for everyday use we find a box of a simple boxed wine, like Jackson Triggs Shiraz, perfectly adequate. For dessert we had some cubed cantaloupe. The cool fruit was perfect following the spicy pasta.