This hearty and healthy dinner can be composed of any number of combinations of fresh, roastable vegetables. In the photograph, you see red onion, mushrooms, yellow summer squash, and cauliflower. Other possibilities could include zucchini, green beans, leeks, or fennel.

Roast the faster cooking ingredients like mushrooms and squash on one pan in the center of the oven, and the firmer vegetables, like root vegetables and cauliflower on a separate pan on the lower, hotter rack of the oven.

  • olive oil
  • S&P
  • 6 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
  • 1 bunch of fresh thyme
  • 8 oz button mushrooms
  • 1 red onion, cut into 8 wedges
  • 1/2 small cauliflower, sliced
  • 1 zucchini or yellow squash (or half of each)
  • 1 heirloom tomato, cored and chopped into chunks
  • 1 lb large macaroni or other desired pasta
  • 1 10 oz can low-sodium chicken or vegetable stock
  • 2 Tbl butter
  • 2 oz sharp, hard white cheddar or Jack cheese, shaved

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Halve mushrooms and slice vegetables into uniformly-sized slices, about a half inch thick. Rub a thin layer of olive oil onto two baking sheets. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and ground black pepper. Arrange vegetable slices evenly on the sheets, cut-side down. Drizzle the vegetables with a little more olive oil to moisten and season with salt and pepper. Drop garlic clove halves and some thyme sprigs randomly between the veggies. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes, until lightly browned.

While the vegetables roast, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Drop pasta into the boiling water when you remove the vegetables from the oven.

Discard baked thyme from baking sheets, and let the baking sheets stand at room temp while you prepare the sauce. For the sauce, remove the cloves of roasted garlic and place them in a hot saute pan with a sprig of fresh thyme. Add stock and two tablespoons of butter, then press the garlic gently with a wooden spoon to smash out the garlic pulp into the sauce. Let simmer until reduced and slightly thickened. Remove and discard thyme.

Drain pasta well and toss with roasted vegetables, diced tomatoes, and sauce. Garnish with chopped fresh thyme and shaved cheese.