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More Perfect Pasta Recipes
Creamy Mediterranean Vegetable Pasta
This creamy Mediterranean vegetable pasta is one of my favourite ways to clear out the fridge and still end up with something that feels a bit fancy. Packed with roasted veg, garlic, herbs, and a silky cream sauce, it’s full of flavour and colour without any fuss. I love how quickly it comes together, making it perfect for busy weeknights or lazy lunches. It’s cosy, satisfying, and a great vegetarian option for when I want something hearty and wholesome.
Ingredients
- 400g tin peeled Roma tomatoes, citric acid free
- 75g roasted eggplant, from a jar
- 75g sun-dried tomatoes, from a jar
- 75g roasted red peppers, from a jar
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 50g smooth ricotta cheese
- Maldon sea salt flakes, to taste
- 400g pasta of your choice
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil and cook the pasta according to packet instructions. Reserve a small amount of pasta water before draining.
- While the pasta cooks, blitz together the tinned tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, eggplant, red peppers, and minced garlic until smooth.
- Transfer the sauce to a pot and heat over medium heat. Once heated through, stir through the ricotta until well combined and creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Toss the cooked pasta through the sauce, adding a splash of pasta water if needed to loosen. Serve immediately.
Notes
- This is one of those brilliant pantry pasta sauces that comes together in minutes and tastes like considerably more effort was involved. The combination of jarred Mediterranean vegetables and tinned tomatoes gives you a deeply flavoured, complex sauce without any real cooking.
- Citric acid free tinned tomatoes make a noticeably sweeter, less sharp sauce. Mutti whole peeled Roma tomatoes are a great choice here.
- Jarred roasted eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, and roasted red peppers are pantry gold. Keep them on hand and you're always 15 minutes away from a seriously good pasta sauce.
- Drain the jarred vegetables well before blitzing. Too much oil or brine in the sauce will make it greasy and overly sharp.
- Smooth ricotta stirred through at the end adds a lovely creaminess without the heaviness of a full cream sauce. Make sure it's smooth ricotta rather than grainy fresh ricotta for the best texture.
- Keep the heat at medium when adding the ricotta. Too high and it can split and become grainy rather than silky.
- Reserve your pasta water before draining. The starch helps loosen the sauce and makes it cling to the pasta beautifully.
- This sauce works with any pasta shape, but short pasta like penne, rigatoni, or casarecce are particularly good as they trap the chunky sauce.
- I use this food processor for blitzing pasta sauces. It handles the mix of wet and dry ingredients smoothly without splattering.
- Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat gently in a pan over low heat, adding a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce.
- The sauce freezes well without the pasta for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge overnight and reheat gently on the stovetop before tossing through freshly cooked pasta.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 259Total Fat: 3gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 4mgSodium: 184mgCarbohydrates: 49gFiber: 6gSugar: 12gProtein: 11g
Please note, this nutrition information is to be used as a guide only. Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.
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Creamy Mediterranean Vegetable Pasta
Work Travels
I adventured to Adelaide for the first time last week – a city I hadn’t really thought much about until one of my friends moved back there earlier this year. Now, with work sending me there on a regular basis, it looks like I’ll be getting to know it a whole lot better. I used to travel to Sydney every other week in a previous role, and that quickly became far too much. So this time, I’m making a conscious effort to keep it balanced – catching up with friends, eating well, and keeping a little space for myself.
Rose, my beloved cat, isn’t thrilled about my travel plans. If I’m away more than two nights, she stays with my family and greets me on return with an indignant miaow and a cold shoulder. She’s dramatic, she’s demanding, and she’s everything to me. And honestly, it’s that love of home – of the quiet, the cooking, the comfort – that makes me race back into the kitchen the minute I unpack.
That’s exactly what happened when I returned from this trip and made the Creamy Mediterranean Vegetable Pasta. I was craving something cosy and familiar, and this little number hit the spot. It’s quick, rich, and made almost entirely from leftovers. It felt like the perfect welcome home after a whirlwind of airports, meetings, and polite small talk.
Foodie Adventures in Adelaide
Adelaide surprised me. The air was cooler than Brisbane, fresh and crisp, and the city felt like it had room to breathe. Friday night was spent catching up with one of my friends, but Saturday morning was where the foodie magic happened.
I wandered into the Central Markets and felt like I’d been transported to another country. It was bustling and colourful, filled with the scent of coffee, spice, and fresh bread. I wandered through in awe, soaking up the atmosphere and admiring the beautiful produce, cheeses, spices, and stalls packed with artisan goods. The whole place had this charm to it, like Paris but with less pretence and more cheese.
That said, the Creamy Mediterranean Vegetable Pasta wasn’t born from my Adelaide wanderings. It was actually inspired by a fridge full of leftovers from my roasted Mediterranean vegetable focaccia. I’d made it earlier that week, and still had tubs of roasted capsicum, zucchini, and eggplant taking up prime shelf space. During a chat with one of the brilliant women I work with, the idea of blending it all into a pasta sauce came up – and the rest, as they say, is dinner.
Back in the Kitchen
Returning home after a trip always leaves me a bit disoriented. I had grand plans for the weekend, but they got swallowed by that familiar fog of depression – the kind that makes getting out of bed feel like a triumph. For two days, I barely managed anything beyond the essentials. But on Sunday afternoon, I remembered those leftover veg and the pasta idea. Creamy Mediterranean Vegetable Pasta became the gentle nudge I needed.
And thanks to a cheeky Annual Leave day, I had a four-day weekend to myself. Rose was thrilled to have me home, trailing behind me like a shadow. I spent most of it tending to my plants – repotting, trimming, taking cuttings, and having full conversations with them, as you do. It’s the kind of slow living that makes me feel settled.
I was still feeling a bit out of sorts after the trip, so obviously, I bought more plants. Woolies had two gorgeous little Peperomia plants sitting near the checkout, and they came home with me. I know it’s not the most practical way to deal with feelings, but it worked. Now they’re perched in sunny spots around the house, looking smug and leafy.
Amidst all that pottering, I kept meals low-effort. No mess, no fuss, just big flavour and soft edges. The kind of meal that fills you up in more ways than one. I honestly think it’s going to be a regular in my rotation from now on.
Frequently asked questions
Why use jarred vegetables rather than roasting my own?
The jarred versions are already roasted, seasoned, and ready to go, which is the entire point of this recipe. The combination of jarred eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, and roasted red peppers gives you a deeply flavoured, complex sauce in fifteen minutes that would take considerably longer if you were starting from raw vegetables. Keep them in the pantry and this pasta is always available.
Why does the ricotta need to go in over medium rather than high heat?
Ricotta is delicate and splits into grainy, separated curds if it gets too hot too quickly. Medium heat gives it time to melt smoothly into the sauce and become genuinely creamy rather than curdling. Take the pan off the heat entirely if it looks like it’s getting too hot before the ricotta has fully incorporated.
Why drain the jarred vegetables before blitzing?
Excess oil or brine from the jars will make the finished sauce greasy and overly sharp if it goes in with the vegetables. Drain everything well before it goes into the food processor and the sauce will be balanced and clean-tasting rather than oily and acidic.
Ingredient breakdown
Tinned peeled Roma tomatoes
Citric acid free, which gives you a sweeter, less sharp base for the sauce. Mutti whole peeled Roma tomatoes are a reliable choice. They go straight into the food processor with the jarred vegetables and get blitzed smooth, forming the tomato backbone of the sauce that everything else builds on.
Roasted eggplant
From a jar, drained well before blitzing. Jarred roasted eggplant is already soft, smoky, and deeply flavoured, and it blitzes into the sauce completely so you get its richness and body throughout without any distinct eggplant pieces in the finished pasta. It adds a silky depth that makes the sauce taste considerably more complex than the method would suggest.
Sun-dried tomatoes
From a jar, drained well before blitzing. Sun-dried tomatoes add an intensely concentrated, slightly sweet tomato depth that is completely different from the tinned tomatoes and gives the sauce a layered, complex flavour rather than a one-dimensional tomato base. The oil they’re packed in is flavourful but the sauce doesn’t need it here, so drain thoroughly.
Roasted red peppers
From a jar, drained well before blitzing. They add sweetness, colour, and a gentle smokiness that ties the other Mediterranean flavours together. Drain them thoroughly because excess brine from the jar is the most likely thing to make the sauce taste sharp and unbalanced.
Minced garlic
A teaspoon blitzed in with everything else, distributing evenly through the sauce without needing to be cooked separately first. The garlic blooms slightly as the blitzed sauce heats on the stovetop.
Smooth ricotta
Stirred through the heated sauce off or over medium heat until completely incorporated and creamy. Smooth ricotta rather than grainy fresh ricotta is important here because the texture difference is very obvious in a blended sauce. It adds a lightness and creaminess that makes the sauce feel indulgent without the heaviness of a full cream sauce.
Maldon sea salt flakes
Season after the ricotta has been incorporated and taste carefully because the sun-dried tomatoes and roasted red peppers both bring their own saltiness. Adjust from there.
Pasta
Any shape works but short pasta like penne, rigatoni, or casarecce are particularly good because they trap the smooth, flavourful sauce rather than just being coated on the outside. Cook in well-salted water and reserve a small amount of pasta water before draining to loosen the sauce if needed when tossing everything together.
