Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta with Roasted Vegetables
Homemade sun-dried tomato pesto with pasta and roasted vegetables is an easy weeknight dinner! This vegetarian recipe is easily made vegan and gluten free.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 30, 2024
This recipe features whole-grain pasta tossed with tons of roasted veggies and homemade sun-dried tomato pesto. Itโs fresh and filling, and leftovers keep well for lunch. Itโs exactly what Iโve been craving lately.
My pesto is a riff on traditional basil pesto, with sun-dried tomatoes in addition to fresh basil. Oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes are perfect for pesto since you can pour that delicious, tomato-infused extra-virgin olive oil right into the food processor.
Sun-dried tomatoes are super rich in umami flavor, so they easily fill the place of Parmesan, although you can certainly add some cheese if youโd like.
I like my pasta with tons of vegetables, so I roasted a big pan of balsamic summer veggies to go on top. It would be fantastic with roasted broccoli and winter squash, too. Feel free to play around with pasta shapes, too. Curly shapes really grab hold of pesto, but penne would work, too. To lighten it up, cook up some fettuccine or linguine and supplement with squash noodles like I did last summer. Yum.
You can go in a lot of different directions with this pesto. Spread it on a sandwich or toast, serve it as a vegetable dip, or thin it out with extra olive oil (or even some water) and use it as a sauce for any number of things. Let me know how you like it!
For serving, consider a fresh green salad, like my Super Simple Arugula Salad or Vegetarian Italian Chopped Salad. I loved it with leftover Greek broccoli salad.
Please let me know how your recipe turns out in the comments! I love hearing from you.
Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta with Roasted Vegetables
Homemade sun-dried tomato pesto with pasta and roasted vegetables is an easy weeknight dinner! Easily made gluten free and/or vegan (see notes). Recipe yields 4 to 6 main servings.
Ingredients
Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto
- One 6.7-ounce jar sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil*
- 1 cup packed fresh basil leaves, plus extra for garnishing
- ยผ cup slivered almonds
- 3 to 4 cloves garlic, to taste
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- ยผ to ยฝ teaspoon salt, to taste
- Pinch red pepper flakes
- ยผ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Totally optional: ยฝ cup freshly grated Parmesan or nutritional yeast, to taste
Pasta and roasted vegetables
- 8 ounces whole grain pasta (gemelli, rotini or penne)
- 1 medium zucchini, diced
- 1 medium yellow squash, diced
- 1 medium red bell pepper (or orange or yellow), diced
- 1 medium yellow or white onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- To roast the vegetables: Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Whisk together the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. On a half-sheet pan or other large, rimmed baking sheet, combine the diced zucchini, yellow squash, bell pepper and onion. Drizzle the olive oil mixture over the vegetables, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss with your hands until the vegetables are evenly coated. Arrange the vegetables in a single layer. Bake for about 30 to 40 minutes, tossing halfway, until they are cooked through and golden.
- To cook the pasta: Bring a large post of salted water to boil. Cook pasta until al dente, according to package directions. Before draining, reserve about 1 cup pasta cooking water. Transfer the cooked pasta to a large serving bowl.
- To make the pesto: First, toast the almonds in a small skillet over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until fragrant and starting to turn golden on the edges, about 4 minutes. In the bowl of your food processor (a blender might work, too), combine the sun-dried tomatoes and their oil, the basil, toasted almonds, garlic, lemon juice, ยผ teaspoon salt and a pinch of red pepper flakes.
- Blend, scraping down the sides as necessary, until the contents are mixed together and roughly uniform. Drizzle in the olive oil while running the machine and blend until youโve reached a relatively smooth, pesto-like consistency. If youโd like to add Parmesan, stir it into the pesto now. Taste and stir in additional salt and pepper, if necessary. The pesto will be thick, but weโll thin it out with cooking water soon.
- Pour the pesto into the warm pasta and drizzle in ยผ cup reserved cooking water. Toss to combine, adding more splashes of cooking water to thin as necessary. Toss in the roasted vegetables. Sprinkle with some chopped fresh basil and serve. This recipe keeps well in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 4 days.
Notes
Recipes referenced during the making of this recipe: Giadaโs penne with sun-dried tomato pesto, Minimalist Bakerโs sun-dried tomato pesto pasta and my spicy roasted ratatouille spaghetti.
*Sun-dried tomato notes: My jar amounted to about 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes and ยผ cup olive oil.
Make it vegan/dairy free: Donโt add Parmesan. Feel free to mix in some nutritional yeast for some cheese-like flavor, but the sun-dried tomatoes and toasted almonds are pretty rich in umami as it is.
Make it gluten free: Use gluten-free pasta.
Make it nut free: Skip the almonds altogether.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionistโs advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Oh my god! I could not be happier about finding this recipe. I love it! The satisfaction after making your own delicious pesto! I love love love this! Definitely going to be making this one of my weekly / fortnightly meals. Aaaah!
Another one! I love it. Thanks for sharing and reviewing again, Chloe.
Iโve made a lot of recipes from your site, and tried a lot of vegetarian recipes in general. My mom tries 99% of my creations, and she declared this dish one of the best things Iโve made by far. I agree it was so delicious! Next time I may go ahead and double the pesto recipe and freeze half of it to have on hand to make a really easy weeknight dinner.
Hooray! Iโm glad you loved it, Hayley. Thanks so much for your review!
Thank you for this recipe! It is a staple in our house, and I make it often for guests, always with rave reviews. I recently made it with roasted butternut squash and kale and it was fantastic. The cherry on top is that it is such a breeze to assemble โ I even let my toddler help me assemble the ingredients!
That sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing your combination, Alex.
Should this dish be served cold or hot? Am I able to make a couple days in advance and serve for a party at room temperature?
Thank you!
I like this warm!
Just finished Sundayโs meal prep and made this for my and my husbandโs lunches this week. This recipe is delicious and Iโm so excited for my lunches. Weโll definitely add this to our regular rotation. We made a few changes, subbing in cashews for almonds and used onion, broccoli, and mushrooms for our veggies.
Iโve recently discovered this recipe and made it twice so far. My husband also loves it. I use the shop bought sun dried tomato pesto and it works fine for me. Itโs a great tasting pasta and vegetable dish. Iโve added it to my go to recipes. Thank you for sharing this!
Hooray! Youโre welcome, Ani. Iโm happy to hear you have made it twice already. Thanks so much for your review.
I have a 6.7 oz jar of pesto. Do I use the whole jar in this recipe?
Thank you!
This was wonderful, Kate! Hubby and I loved it. I always come back to your blog and I always enjoy the recipes you have on it. Keep up the great work.
Thank you, Dina! Iโm glad you are enjoying the blog. I appreciate your kind review. :)
I loved this recipe as did my guest. Yet another great one from cookie and kate! THANKS! It is too early in NH for handfuls of basil so I used some I bought in a tube at the grocery store. Worked great!
Iโm glad it was a hit and you were able to find some basil that works! I appreciate your review, Judy.
Okay so my wife has been raving about this recipe ever since she taste tested the pesto while I was cooking it. I was making a batch for a friend who is going through chemo and her family. I just received a text from my friend saying the pasta is โheavenly.โ This came from the mouth of their 7 year old! My wife also said itโs one of the best homemade meals sheโs had. Thank you so much for this! Btw, I love your site and your recipes, you are always consistent and your food is so flavorful. Much love, Allison
My garden produced an abundance of tomatoes this year already so I dehydrated then and used them in this recipe with squash from the garden as well and man was it delish. Everyone loved it and it was quick and easy to make. Oven baking the squash took the longest but no question this will be a favorite of this familyโs! Thank you so much for the simple delish pesto. Also, I took your recommendation and paired it with your apple salad and used apples and strawberries and it was wonderful as well. Thank you so much!
That sounds delicious! Iโm happy you loved it, Andrea.
Questionโฆ.what is the measurement for the sun dried tomatoes? One 6 5/7 oz. jar? The link you have there takes me to sun-dried tomatoes sold in pounds and that are dried? I just made this and am pretty sure I used way too much!
Hi Justine, you will want one 6.7oz jar of sun-dried tomatoes. Unfortunately, I donโt have control over external links updating or changing. Thanks for brining this to my attention.
This was amazing! The sauce was so easy to make, I used basil paste instead of fresh basil. I didnโt have all the vegetables but it still turned out delicious. Will definitely be making again!
Thank you for sharing, Ema! I appreciate your review.
Unsurprisingly, this dish was a delicious success! Kate, you have a serious talent for making (and instructing us to make) good food.
Thank you, M! Iโm glad you love it.
I enjoyed this as a nice alternative to a traditional basil pesto, which is too much basil for my taste.
With two minor adjustments, this will be a 5! 1) Iโd cut the oil. I cut down the oil from the original recipe, but still found it too be too oily for my liking. 2) Next time, Iโll cut the pesto by 1/4 or 1/3โฆI like the pesto to complement the pasta (I increased the pasta a bit) and roasted veggies, and not be front and center.
Overall, a solid lunch/dinner staple.
Iโd never made sun dried tomato pesto before today, it turned out great! Itโs so easy and I love any meal that has roasted vegetables. Thanks for the recipe!
Youโre welcome, Debbie! Iโm glad you enjoyed it.
Wow, you wrote this recipe over 5 years ago, and I have never had (or made!) sun dried tomato pesto before, itโs DELICIOUS. I think I like it better than basil pesto, which Iโve always thought would be hard to top. I did add parmesan since I had it, but it tasted great before I added the parmesan.
I used 2 zucchinis and one red pepper. I am sure I used more pasta (9oz), I think next time I would roast a 2nd pepper too.
Used food processor and a basil infused extra virgin olive oil, as I did not quite have enough fresh basil. Will make again soon!
A plug for your cookbook โ I made your (no bake) chocolate oatmeal cookies a few days ago. As a teenager (30-40 years ago) and a month ago, I also made that other version you referred to, with the butter, lots of white sugar, cocoa, oats and coconut. Your recipe with almond butter is much healthier, and tastes satisfying. Hard to stop from eating one only. No need to make the old recipe anymore!
Thanks for your recipes!
Iโm glad you made it! Thank you for your your review for both the recipe and my cookbook. Thank you, Anita!
Iโve just made this recipe and there is one word to describe itโฆSTUNNING. All my family loved it, so will definitely make it again.
Thatโs great! Thank you for sharing, Lisa.
This was fabulous. I modified in a few ways โ I used chickpea pasta, jarred sun-dried tomato pesto (simply for ease), and added shrimp for some more protein (mostly so my husband would fill up a little more). So so delicious! Thanks for a healthy, easy and DELICIOUS meal Katie!
Thank you for sharing how you changed it up, Liz! Iโm glad you loved it.
This was fabulous. I modified in a few ways โ I used chickpea pasta, jarred sun-dried tomato pesto (simply for ease), and added shrimp for some more protein (mostly so my husband would fill up a little more). So so delicious! Thanks for a healthy, easy and DELICIOUS meal Kate!
This is by far the best pesto pasta ever! LOVED it!!
Hooray! Iโm glad you love it.
This was delicious! The only change I made was to use store bought sun dried tomato pesto (because I had it) and I added some cooked chicken. My husband and I really enjoyed it!
Thank you for your review, Paula!
Made this for dinner. Turned out so so good! I used broccoli instead of squash and the roasted flavor of the veggies was oh so yummy! Will definitely be making this again, might even make the pesto from scratch next time.
Great to hear, Mira! Thank you for your review.
Hello Kate.
I have made this dish several times before and I plan to make it tomorrow again (as it is one of my favourite dishes).
I was wondering if I could use eggplants/aubergines instead of zuchinniโฆ? just because I have eggplants on hand and no zucchiniโฆ
Please let me know what you think.
Many thanks,
Ani
You could try it! Let me know what you think, Ani.
This was incredibly delicious! It was so rich-tasting, it needed no cheese. Iโve made it twice now, and my only complaint is I cannot stop eating this!
Great to hear, Ellen! I appreciate your review.
This one has been a favourite for a while! I follow the recipe almost exactly. I add parm to the pesto, and use peppers, zucchini, and thickly cut mushrooms for the veggies. I garnish with parm and red pepper flakes, and if I really want to spoil my wife, I mix in some kalamata olives. Thank you!
Youโre welcome, Alex!