Really tasty pasta with a sauce made from roasted vegetables and juicy chicken meatballs.
Pasta with roasted vegetable sauce and chicken meatballs – this simply tastes incredibly good! Juicy chicken meatballs, freshly cooked pasta and the most wonderful creamy vegetable sauce with Parmesan, fresh basil and a touch of lemon. It’s the kind of dish where you take the first mouthful and know straight away that you’ll be making it again. And on top of that, it’s really easy to make.
The clever thing about this recipe is that the oven does most of the work. Both the vegetables and the chicken meatballs are baked, so there’s no standing over several different pans, frying and stirring. Meanwhile the smell of roasting vegetables fills the kitchen, and you can look forward to a truly delicious pasta dish with plenty of flavour.
I start by mixing the chicken meatball mixture and putting it in the fridge while I prepare the vegetables. Peppers, carrots, onions and garlic go onto a baking tray with herbs and roast in the oven until they are completely tender and have developed the loveliest sweetness and flavour.
While the vegetables look after themselves, I shape the chicken mixture into small meatballs, which go onto a second baking tray and into the oven. Then both trays simply sit in there doing their thing while I get everything else ready. It hardly gets any easier.
Once the vegetables are roasted, I blend them with stock to make a smooth, silky sauce. It goes into a saucepan, where I add cream, freshly grated Parmesan and plenty of fresh basil leaves. Finally I season with a little lemon juice, which gives the creamy sauce a lovely freshness and brings all the flavours together.
And then comes the best part. The juicy chicken meatballs are tossed in the sauce with freshly cooked pasta, so everything is coated in that rich, creamy vegetable sauce. The combination of sweet roasted vegetables, Parmesan, basil and tender meatballs is simply so good. It really is a pasta dish that tastes like far more effort than it actually takes.
Want to make it extra special? Put the finished pasta in an ovenproof dish, top with a generous layer of grated cheese and pop it in the oven until the cheese is melted and golden. It’s the finishing touch that makes this dish even more irresistible.
A wonderfully good pasta with roasted vegetable sauce and chicken meatballs that’s perfect both for busy weeknights and for those evenings when you just fancy something really good. Lots of flavour, a lovely creamy sauce and minimal effort in the kitchen. I can thoroughly recommend this one.
Pasta with Roasted Vegetable Sauce and Chicken Meatballs
Ingredients
Roasted vegetable sauce
- 3 red peppers
- 150 g carrots
- 2 onions
- 4 cloves garlic
- 300 g cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 fresh chilli, adjust the heat to taste
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp rosemary dried
- 1 tsp thyme dried
- 150 ml chicken stock
- 100 ml cream
- 30 g Parmesan, finely grated
- 5 sprigs fresh basil, leaves only
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice
Chicken meatballs
- 600g minced chicken
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, grated or crushed
- 1 1/2 tbsp breadcrumbs
- 25 ml milk
- 1 egg
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- Cooking spray or a little oil
Pros
- 400 g pasta
Method
- Mix the ingredients for the chicken meatballs together, season with salt and freshly ground pepper and chill the mixture if you like.
- Wash and prepare all the vegetables for the sauce. Halve the peppers and remove the seeds, cut the carrots into small slices, halve the onions and peel them, and cut the base off the garlic cloves but leave the skins on.
- Spread the peppers, carrots, onions, garlic, tomatoes and chilli on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle the oil over the top and season with the herbs, salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Roast the vegetables in a preheated fan oven at 210°C for about 30-35 minutes.
- Meanwhile, shape the mixture into meatballs and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Spray the tops with a little cooking spray or brush with oil.
- Put the tray in the oven and bake the meatballs alongside the vegetables for about 18-20 minutes, or until they are golden and cooked through.
- Tip the vegetables into a blender (squeezing the garlic out of its skins) together with the hot stock and blend until you have a smooth sauce.
- Pour the sauce into a saucepan or deep frying pan, add the cream, Parmesan and fresh basil and heat through thoroughly. Season to taste with freshly squeezed lemon juice, salt and freshly ground pepper, and adjust the consistency with more stock if needed.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta until al dente according to the packet instructions.
- Toss the baked meatballs and the pasta in the sauce and loosen with a little of the pasta cooking water if needed.
- Serve with a little grated Parmesan and basil on top, if you like.
Nutrition
Premium
