Roast Pan Pasta — a plant-based Italian recipe by BOSH!
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Roast Pan Pasta

This one is a proper weeknight hero. We keep coming back to it because it comes together in one pan and tastes like you've been slow-cooking a sauce all afternoon. The sun-dried tomatoes add this deep, almost jammy richness, the fresh peppers give it a bit of sweetness, and the passata brings everything together into a sauce that clings to every bit of pasta. It's the kind of meal that makes you feel like a total legend in the kitchen without breaking a sweat. Honestly, make it tonight.

Cook: 40 min
Serves 4

Before You Start

  • Preheat oven to 200°C
  • Large frying pan (oven-safe)
  • Microplane or fine grater
  • Colander
  • Large pot for pasta

Ingredients

  • 1 garlic clove
  • 5 sun-dried tomatoes
  • 1 romano red pepper
  • 5 tomatoes
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 500ml bottle good quality passata
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 10g basil
  • Sugar, salt and pepper to taste
  • 300g pasta
  • Nooch
  • Handful rocket leaves (optional)
  • Drizzle extra virgin olive oil
  • Drizzle of balsamic vinegar

Method

1

Prepare the ingredients

  • Peel and grate the garlic
  • Finely slice the sun-dried tomatoes
  • Halve, core and slice the pepper
  • Dice the tomatoes
2

Make the sauce

  • Warm the olive oil in the frying pan over medium heat, add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds
  • Add the sun-dried tomatoes, pepper and tomatoes to the pan and stir for 2-3 minutes
  • Add the passata, stir to combine and simmer for 3-4 minutes
  • Add the balsamic vinegar, stir into the sauce, put the pan in the oven and roast for 20 minutes
3

With 10 minutes to go, prepare the pasta

  • Pour the pasta into a big pot of boiling salted water and cook according to packet instructions (approx 7-9 mins)
4

Finish the sauce

  • Pick the basil leaves for the sauce and finely slice (saving a few small ones for garnish)
  • Take the pan out of the oven, stir, taste and season to perfection
  • Fold the sliced basil into the sauce
  • Drain the pasta into a colander, reserving a mugful of the pasta cooking water, then pour the pasta into the sauce along with as much pasta water as needed to loosen the sauce to a silky coating consistency
  • Fold in the pasta through the sauce to cover and coat
5

Time to serve

  • Spoon the pasta into bowls, sprinkle over nooch, garnish with the reserved basil, top with rocket, drizzle over a little extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar and serve

Tips & Variations

  • Char the peppers first: If you've got an extra few minutes, hold the pepper slices in a dry pan before you start the sauce. It adds this lovely smoky sweetness that takes the whole thing up a notch.
  • Use the sun-dried tomato oil: Don't chuck that oil from the jar. Use it instead of plain olive oil to fry the garlic and you get even more flavour before you've even added anything else.
  • Go generous with the pasta water: When you're cooking the pasta in the sauce, keep a mug of starchy pasta water nearby. If the sauce looks too thick, a splash of that water will loosen it up and make it silky rather than dry.

Why This Works

The trick here is building the sauce in layers. You get the garlic going first, then the sun-dried tomatoes go in early so they melt into everything and give the whole sauce that deep, savoury backbone. Cooking the pasta right in the sauce at the end means it absorbs all those flavours instead of just sitting in them. That's what makes it taste so good.