Roasted Veggie and Sausage Pasta

I am not sure if I love roasted veggies or grilled veggies more but I know they both make my mouth water.  This recipe uses a variety of vegetables - feel free to customize it to your tastes or what you have on hand.  Since several of the steps are concurrent (boil and cook pasta while browning sausage and roasting veggies), the time involved isn't too much and the wonderful, deep flavors meld together wonderfully once everything is combined.  My family has never once complained about eating their veggies with this meal!

INGREDIENTS:

• olive oil
• 8 oz mushrooms, quartered
• 2 small bell peppers
• 1 small summer squash or zucchini
• 1 medium red onion
• 1 small sweet yellow onion
• 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
• 3/4 lb sweet Italian sausage
• 3/4 lb pasta (I used fusili)
• sea salt
• pepper
• optional toppings: fresh basil, oregano, shredded Parmesan (I used all three and it was amazing)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line two baking sheets with foil.  Begin boiling water for pasta.
2. Slice squash lengthwise to quarter and then cut into 1/2 inch pieces. Chop peppers and onions.  Spread on one of the foil-lined sheets, drizzle with about 2 Tbsp olive oil and gently stir to coat.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Place mushrooms on the second foil-lined baking sheet, drizzle with oil and toss to coat.
4. Bake vegetables for 10 minutes, gently stir, and then place back into the oven for another 5-10 minutes longer, or to desired tenderness.  (You may want to leave the mushrooms in longer than the other veggies.)
5. As the veggies are cooking, cook pasta according to package directions and brown and drain sausage.
6. Add the can of diced tomatoes, with juices, to the sausage.  Cook for 5 minutes.
7. Combine sausage, veggies, and pasta.  
8. Serve topped with fresh oregano, basil, and shredded Parmesan cheese.

Difficulty: relatively easy but with some chopping

Time: 30-40 minutes

Source:  This one is my own...and is much loved by my family.