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.
Great recipe!
I seriously would have NEVER thought of adding roasted cauli to pasta! This is GENIUS. Pinned!
Loving this pasta recipe, Maria! Thank you for sharing. 🙂 Pinned!
Yum, this is my kind of pasta dish. I love cauliflower and capers and everything else in it.
LOVE those pretty red tomatoes peeking out of the pasta!! When I was pregnant, I had the hugest craving for Eggs Benedict. I finally made it myself — it was SUCH a hassle but OMG it was the best thing EVER!!! Pregnancy cravings ALWAYS win!!
Love the flavor combination you’ve got going on here. Looks like pasta perfection to me. 🙂
Yum! This looks just amazing! I love all of the flavors you have in your pasta dish! great use of cauliflower!
Roasted cauliflower is so so delicious. I think cauliflower is an underrated vegetable in general. I can see why you’re stuck on this dish
I’m all over this! Love the capers and lemon as a vinaigrette! I wouldn’t share either!!
I actually have a head of cauliflower in my fridge as we speak! I know what I am making for dinner!
oh boy!! there is nothing like a big beautiful bowl of pasta! (especially when you are pregnant!-enjoy!)
This time of year, it’s always hard to resist a bowl of pasta! I’m loving the roasted veggies in this recipe!
Marla, this dish looks amazing! I can not wait to try your recipe! I am always looking for dishes to add roasted veggies to!
Wow, never woulda thought of adding cauliflower to pasta! Awesome recipe. Gonna put it in the menu this week 🙂
Anything with roasted cauliflower is fine with me! I love that stuff!
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This is one of those recipes that makes me want to run right out to the store for the ingredients!
That vinaigrette sounds SO bright and delicious! Trying this soon!
Anything with lemon amplifies a dish so much more! I love the cauliflower addition!
Roasted cauliflower is my veggie yum…love it with the pasta, lemon, and capers!
I have only recently fallen in love with roasted cauliflower! I am all over this!
Huge cauliflower eaters in my house! This sounds fantastic!
I made alla checca pasta tonight but I almost grabbed the head of cauliflower in the bottom of my fridge but I thought “nah” now I wish I would have! This pasta looks delicious- love all the flavors going on!
Loving the roasted veggies and that lemon dressing. Perfect pasta if you ask me!
How delicious! I love capers and look for any excuse to use them in cooking. I know we’re going to love this dish!
Refusing a craving never works for me. It will continue in that nagging voice until I feed it what it wants. This pasta looks so good. I’m loving all of the roasted veggies.
I love the simplicity of this recipe. Roasted cauliflowers are the best, especially in tacos. Pinned!
Great pasta recipe ~ especially with that roasted cauliflower 🙂
I made this for dinner last night, and it was wonderful. Even my picky husband (who doesn’t believe any pasta dish should be served without meat included) loved this dish. The vinaigrette is delicious, I loved the addition of a little maple syrup. It was perfect for our meatless Monday. Thanks so much for sharing.
This looks like my kind of meal! Love the roasted veggies, only way to go!
I love roasted cauliflower, this looks like pasta perfection!
Okay, you ‘ve already turned me into a quinoa salad addict (the one with asparagus peas and lemon basil vinigrette) to the point I’m buying quinoa by the pounds and I live alone! This sounds very much like that only different with pasta so I’m almost afraid to try it, as I know these will be the only two choices for dinner for a month.
I can only imagine how much flavour those roasted cauliflower, garlic and tomatoes added. I am definitely pinning it and adding it to my weekly menu.
This is such a great recipe and it’s so simple. Love it
Made this for dinner last night [with company over] and it was a HIT. Everyone loved it and took seconds. We only have a little bit leftover. We added chicken [with lemon pepper seasoning] and served with bread!
I just made this last night and it was DELICIOUS! What a great idea using the vinaigrette as a pasta sauce!! I used a spaghetti type noodle instead, & I roasted the veggies longer.. absolutely loved it!
Just finished eating this for dinner and loved it!!! All the flavours were really yummy. Thank you for a great reciepe
Roasted cauliflower (and vegetables in general) are great! The lemon is a great incorporation with cauliflower for sure!
I made this for supper last night and liked that for the most part, it was ingredients I already had on hand. Nice for meatless Mondays…even better served next to a bbq’ed steak!
It was also delicious served cold the next day.
Thanks for sharing!
I served this dish at a dinner party tonight and everyone raved about it. I love the simplicity of the recipe yet the complexity of the flavors. It was a big hit all around.
Made this last night and it was fantastic! Wonderful flavors. We also added some arugula! Keep those pregnancy cravings coming!! 😉
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.