Penne with Roasted Cauliflower and Lemon Caper Vinaigrette
Updated March 26, 2019
Penne with Roasted Cauliflower and Lemon Caper Vinaigrette-love the flavors in this healthy pasta dish!
You guys, I have to tell you about this pasta dish. My grilled cheese obsession has moved to a pasta obsession. Specifically, Penne with Roasted Cauliflower and Lemon Caper Vinaigrette. I made it for lunch over the weekend and I can’t stop thinking about it. Sometimes pregnancy cravings are a one and done thing, but this pasta has been on my mind all day, every day. I LOVE it!
We were enjoying a lazy Saturday at home and I wasn’t planning on cooking or blogging, but I started craving pasta. I tried to ignore the craving, but I don’t even know why I tried. It never works. So instead, I went upstairs and looked in the fridge and pantry to see if we had any ingredients to create a pasta dish.
I found a head of cauliflower in the bottom drawer of our fridge. Vegetables have been off limits for most of my pregnancy, but they are finally creeping back into my diet. I thought I could handle the cauliflower if I added it to my pasta. Carbs make everything better right now:)
I decided to roast the cauliflower with grape tomatoes, garlic, and red onions. Roasting brings out the best flavor!
I used my favorite pasta, DeLallo’s Organic Whole Wheat Pasta. It is pasta perfection! I used penne because it was the first bag I saw in the cabinet, but any pasta will do. I added the roasted veggies to my cooked penne.
The pasta dish was lacking something so I whisked up a lemon caper vinaigrette and poured it over my pasta. I gave it a good toss and went in for a bite. Holy smokes! The combination was magical!
I added a little shredded Parmesan cheese and enjoyed a big bowl of pasta. Josh and Caleb already ate lunch, so I wasn’t going to offer them any pasta, but they walked into the kitchen and asked to taste it. I was hesitant to share, but I wanted to see if they liked it. I was kind of worried my pregnancy cravings had weirded out, but nope, they both loved it! This pasta is the real deal. It is so good!
I had leftovers the next day and the pasta dish hit the spot again. I am seriously in love with this recipe! Penne with Roasted Cauliflower and Lemon Caper Vinaigrette is going on the menu again this week. I can’t get enough! You should add it to your menu too!
Penne with Roasted Cauliflower and Lemon Caper Vinaigrette
Ingredients
For the Pasta:
For the Lemon Caper Vinaigrette:
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 tablespoons small capers
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
For serving:
- 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place the cauliflower, garlic, and onion slices on a large baking sheet. Drizzle with olive and toss until well coated. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Roast until golden and tender, about 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and stir the cauliflower. Add the tomatoes and return the pan to the oven. Roast for 10 minutes.
- While the cauliflower is roasting, bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta until al dente, about 7-8 minutes. Drain pasta and set aside.
- Meanwhile, make the Lemon Caper Vinaigrette. In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, capers, maple syrup, mustard, and red pepper flakes. Set aside.
- Roughly chop the roasted onions. Remove the garlic from the peel and chop.
- In a large pan, combine pasta, cauliflower, tomatoes, onions, and garlic. Add the Lemon Caper Vinaigrette and stir until coated. Heat over medium heat until pasta is warm. Serve with shredded Parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper, if desired.
Have you tried this recipe?
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Disclosure: this post is in partnership with DeLallo, but our opinions are our own.
I wanted you to know that this dish was STELLAR. Wow! I made it last night for my three kids and I — what a hit! The only changes I made were leaving out the maple syrup in the vinaigrette (didn’t have it on-hand) and I added some mini sweet peppers that were going old in my fridge. Thanks for such a healthy and delicious dish. 🙂
This is our first time using one of your recipes, it is also the first time that my entire family ate the same thing for dinner, liked it and had seconds!!!!!! Thanks for such an easy and delicious recipe! (We substituted gf pasta and it worked out wonderfully!)
I saved this recipe sort of off-hand while browsing Pinterest one day and I finally decided to make it. As I was buying the ingredients I needed I started to doubt whether I would like it as much as I thought. Even as I was cooking it, I still had my doubts. But they were gone once I tasted it, let me tell you! This was deliciously refreshing. I did make one main change, and that is I didn’t roast the tomatoes, I tossed them in raw because cooked tomatoes are one of the foods that grosses me out the most. Other than that i kept to the recipe.
I will say one more thing though. I thought I would be clever and save my self some time. Since the recipe says to chop the onions after they are roasted, I figure I’d chop them up front and save some time and having to work with piping hot onions. But they started to turn black less than halfway through the roasting time. So definitely don’t skip that step and keep those onions big at first. lol
Easy recipe yet so flavourful. I tried it and loved it !! Thank you for sharing.
If I make this to take to a picnic can I make it a day before refrigerate it and serve it cold?
Thanks
Sure!
This was one delicious pasta dish. We love pasta and we also love cauliflower so it was perfect. I made it exactly according to the directions, which is unusual for me because I always change up something but not this time. The vinaigrette was excellent . I made a double batch so I could use it as my salad dressing and I’m making it again for tonight’s salad as well. I will be back to your site many times, I am sure.
Has anyone served this cold, like as more of a pasta salad? I guess it wouldn’t have to be cool, just not hot out of the pan. I’m just wondering if it would still be good. thanks.
I had a half head of cauliflower and a chicken breast that I wanted to use up and this recipe was perfect. I butterflied the chicken breast, drizzled it with olive oil, s and p and roasted it on the same cookie sheet as the cauliflower. Followed the rest of the recipe exactly and it couldn’t have been better. We love capers, so I doubled the vinaigrette recipe and used it as the dressing for our salad. Will make this again and again.
Glad you liked the recipe!
Its a wonderfull recipie i just added some sweet green pepper and it was amazing thank u for this great lunch
Super delish ❤️ This is a keeper
Been using this recipe for years now and it’s on of my family’s favorites! The dressing is addicting. I use red peppers instead of the roasted tomatoes and it’s delicious.