Roasted garlic, cherry tomato and broccoli with Italian Sausage and spaghetti

Patrick and I are coming off the heels of a stellar, all-chefs dinner night on Saturday night. The details, including our two dishes (And Patrick's first post!) will but up shortly.

In the mean time, I have a confession to make... I don't like vegetables.

Alright, so that's not completely true. I don't like cooking vegetables. By themselves they're usually fairly lifeless and I haven't always had the best luck integrating them as components. Either way I've always thought they were a bit of a hassle to cook.

After this dish I'm going to have to reassess my vegetable prejudices.


This is effectively a deconstructed spaghetti sauce with broccoli. The veggies are roasted, which not only amplifies their flavors but is also an extraordinarily easy way to cook them. Combined with roasted garlic and Italian sausage, this dish is full of robust flavors and actually fairly healthy for you. If you wanted to go even more fit, you could substitute a turkey or chicken sausage in lieu of the fatty Italian.

Serves 1-2
2 Italian Sausage
~10 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
~10 cloves garlic
1 head of broccoli, trimmed down to just florets
~1/4 lb spaghetti, or some other pasta of your choosing
1 tbsp tomato paste
Balsamic vinegar and olive oil to coat the pan

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350. Cover a cookie sheet in aluminum foil and coat lightly with olive oil and vinegar and place the garlic, tomatoes and broccoli on it. Place the sheet in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until all ingredients are cooked.
2. While the vegetables are roasting, cut the casing off the Italian sausage, break into small pieces and saute with the tomato paste until cooked through
   
3. Bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta and cook following whatever directions the package suggests
   
4. When all ingredients are finished, lay the pasta on the plate and top with veggies and Italian sausage
5. Enjoy!