Roasted Broccoli Pasta with Roasted Garlic Goat Cheese Sauce

Erin Alderson

Roasted Broccoli Pasta with Roasted Garlic Goat Cheese Sauce | @naturallyella

As I start to balance our evening meals between what we would normally eat, versus what I should feed a toddler, I’ve started to find an intersection. This roasted broccoli pasta is one of those landing spots (minus the nuts for him). You may look at me crazy about my toddler eating goat cheese (he does) but I love that I can easily minimize the salt in this recipe but still have good flavor, thanks to the roasted garlic. I roast a head of garlic weekly and store it in a bit of olive oil to use throughout the week. Beyond this pasta sauce, the roasted garlic is great on pizza, in other sauces, or added to hummus.

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Roasted Broccoli Pasta with Goat Cheese Sauce

★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 45 minutes
  • Total Time: 55 minutes
  • Yield: 2 servings
  • Category: Main Course
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Description

A hearty vegetarian pasta dish that uses an easy/creamy roasted garlic goat cheese sauce tossed with roasted broccoli and whole wheat pasta.

Ingredients

  • 1 head garlic
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 3/4 pound broccoli

Pasta

  • 4 ounces whole wheat pasta
  • 1/4 cup crushed walnuts

Goat Cheese Sauce

  • 4 ounces goat cheese (at room temperature)
  • 1/4 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 cup grated vegetarian Parmesan
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375˚ F. Slice the top ¼” off a head of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, wrap in parchment paper, and tie with cooking twine. Roast for 40 to 45 minutes until the garlic is soft and fragrant.
  2. Cut the broccoli into bite-sized florets. Toss with olive oil and roast until tender and charring, 25 to 30 minutes. Prepare the pasta according to directions, drain and set aside.
  3. When the garlic is done, remove 5 to 6 cloves of the garlic. Combine the garlic cloves with the sauce ingredients in a blender. Puree until smooth. 
  4. When broccoli is done, combine with the pasta, walnuts, and sauce. Serve immediately- the pasta will soak up the sauce fairly quickly!

Notes

Tips and Tricks: If you’re not a fan of the pasta sauce soaking into the pasta, I recommend tossing a little reserved pasta water in with the sauce. This will help the noodles be a bit more saucy. 

Stock up: get the pantry ingredients you will need: pasta, walnuts, broccoli

Nutrition

  • Calories: 653
  • Sugar: 5
  • Sodium: 965.8
  • Fat: 30.8
  • Carbohydrates: 65.2
  • Fiber: 5.3
  • Protein: 36.8
  • Cholesterol: 48.3

Step by Step

Broccoli Pasta

variations

We eat quite a bit of pasta and I’m always looking for ways to mix things up. While you can’t get this exact recipe to be vegan (although the vegan cheese on the market is getting better), there are a few good options.

Mascarpone Cheese: If you’re not a goat cheese fan, pick up mascarpone cheese. It’s creamy, makes for a wonderful pasta sauce, and doesn’t have the goat flavor.

Vegan: while this sauce isn’t as easy the goat cheese sauce, I love this lemon-almond pasta sauce. You could also do a cashew or sunflower cream sauce.

Cauliflower: replace the broccoli with roasted cauliflower.

Explore Broccoli

broccoli

When the weather cools, some of my favorite vegetables come back in season. Broccoli is just the beginning, but a great start. In general, I love roasting broccoli and it’s a match made for pasta. Beyond this pasta dish, a few other ways that I enjoy roasted broccoli include:

Broccoli Soup with Ginger and Lemon
Roasted Broccoli Peanut Noodles
Broccoli Chickpea Bowls with Homemade Teriyaki

Roasted Broccoli Pasta