Roasted Root Vegetables with Pasta in a Roasted Garlic & White Wine Sauce

 

Veggies:

Carrots

parsnip  

celery root 

sweet potatoes (Or regular ones if you prefer)

corn

cauliflower

broccoli

Garlic, crushed

 

Sauce:

Small Diced Mushrooms (portabella, shitake, oyster whatever you like)

Small Diced Shallots

whole head of garlic for roasting

White wine

4 or so Sprigs of Thyme, stripped from the stems

2 TBS Butter

3/4 Cup of Heavy Cream or Half & Half (room temp-ish)

1 Whole Lemon, juiced

White Pepper

Dash of Nutmeg

 

 

 

Cut just the top off a head of garlic.  Place in the middle of a piece of foil.  Drizzle with olive oil and wrap up.  Toss in oven and roast until smooshy.

 

Take all cylinder like veggies and make coins of them.  Peel and chunk Sweet taters and celery root and piece out the broccoli and cauliflower.  Coat it all  in olive oil, garlic and kosher salt, roasted at 350, tossing once or twice to make sure nothing sticks and everything gets good color. Maybe 45 min or so.  The corn will not take as long to roast so toss that in about the last 20 minutes or so.

 

Whist they roast boil your noodlies.  I'm going to recommend a small noodle.  Pastina or orrechi, maybe macaroni, Alphabets even, just until cooked through.  Aaaaaand drain, reserving 1 cup of cooooking liquid.

 

To Mak-a Da Sauce!

 

Get your head of Garlic out of the Foil wrapper.  It's gonna be slimy.  Squeeze all the garlicy goodness into your pan for the sauce. Add your butter and smoosh the garlic and butter together as it melts.  Once its all incorporated toss in your onion and mushrooms and sprinkle with a dash of kosher salt.  It helps the mushrooms release the liquid in em.  Swish em around to get every one coated in buttery goodness.  Lid that bitch and let it cook (Pay attention so as not to burrrrn Ze Onions!), give them a swirl every so often.  Once the onions are translucent and the mushrooms look a little wilty pour in a cup or so of white wine and 4 or so sprigs of thyme leaves.  Bring it to a slow boil and slightly reduce the sauce, about 10  minutes.  Reduce heat to a simmer.... wait until it's no longer boiling (*IMPORTANT do not pour in milk products while it boiling) and slowly, stirring constantly stir in the heavy cream, then the lemon juice and season to taste with white pepper and a dash of nutmeg.    Taste for salt.

 

Turn the heat off.  Get your veggies out of the oven and dump in with drained pasta and top with the sauce.  Wah-la!  it's food! 

 

You could eat it as is, or pour it into a casserole and top with bread crumbs or crushed roasted veggie ritz (my fav) on top with a little parm and toss it back in the oven to get a nice crust.

 

It could be a main dish!

 

It could be a side dish!

 

You could add Chicken if you desire meat.

 

You could have it with Fish.

 

Or with a steak.  Whatever you choose!

 

I read something recently which strikes a cord with me.

 

Eat Food. Mostly Plants.*  The author stipulates that the food we eat isn't food anymore, that it's so over processed it's no longer good for us.  And also that Meat shouldn't be the main portion of a meal, that traditionally meat was a treat.  Once maybe twice a week you'd have Chicken.  So, I'm going to make an effort to eat better. 

 

More Veggies, Less Meat. 

 

*Food Rules, Micheal Pollan