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Looking down into a massive pot of completed pasta dish. Pops of red from the cherry tomatoes and red capsicum.
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Roasted Vegetable Penne with Chicken & Basil Sauce

Weeknight family favourite. This Roasted Vegetable Penne with Chicken & Basil Sauce is a complete meal in a bowl. Beautiful AND delicious!
Overview - Cube and roast vegetables, roast and shred chicken, make a simple and quick basil sauce. Combine all these with cooked pasta
Before you start
The 1hr total time assumes that your oven is already preheated. If you're in a hurry; follow the instructions, aiming to get the veg in the oven 10 minutes after the chicken. The pasta can be put on to boil shortly after the chicken and veg come out of the oven. This will allow time for the chicken to cool enough to handle and shred while the pasta is cooking. You can then combine the shredded chicken and roasted veg with the pasta while they are still warm.
Cook Time1 hour
Total Time1 hour
Servings: 4
Author: Hangry Miss

Ingredients

  • 3 chicken chops thighs with bone in, skin on, about 600g
  • small eggplant/aubergine
  • small red capsicum/red pepper *limit to 160g
  • small zucchini/courgette
  • small wedge Kent/Japanese pumpkin about 400g, unprepped
  • 3 Tablespoons olive oil
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • large handful basil leaves about 25g
  • 4 Tablespoons olive oil
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 Tablespoons pine nuts
  • 320 g penne *gluten-free
  • 200 g cherry tomatoes *limit to 180g

* FODMAP notes

Instructions

  • Preheat Oven – to 180°C
  • Bake Chicken - dry the chicken thighs well with paper towel. Rub with some olive oil and season liberally with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place on a baking tray and roast for about 40 minutes, until the chicken skin is browned and crisp. When you make a cut through the thickest part of the flesh of one of the thighs, the juice should run clear, not pink. Set aside to cool enough so that you can handle them to shred.
    3 chicken chops
  • Bake Eggplant, Capsicum, Zucchini & Pumpkin - cut the vegetables (unpeeled, apart from the pumpkin) into similarly- sized small cubes. Transfer to a large bowl and toss through the olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Transfer to a large baking sheet with sides (unlined). You want the veg to lie in a single layer. Use two baking sheets if you need to. Roast for around 30 minutes, stirring and rotating the pan halfway through. The veg will collapse down and get a bit charred.
    small eggplant/aubergine
    small red capsicum/red pepper
    small zucchini/courgette
    small wedge Kent/Japanese pumpkin
    3 Tablespoons olive oil
    ½ teaspoon salt
    freshly ground black pepper
  • Basil Sauce - blend basil, olive oil, pine nuts and salt together using a stick blender or small food processor. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.
    ½ teaspoon salt
    large handful basil leaves
    4 Tablespoons olive oil
    2 Tablespoons pine nuts
  • Boil Pasta – use a big saucepan that will take all the combined ingredients. Cook penne in plenty of well-salted boiling water until very nearly cooked. This will take around 10 minutes, but follow the instructions on the packaging. Test a couple of minutes shy of the suggested cook time.
    320 g penne
  • Cherry Tomatoes - cut the tomatoes in halves or quarters, depending on size. Aim for a size that roughly matches the other veg. Set aside.
    200 g cherry tomatoes
  • Shred Chicken - using your hands, remove the bones and chop/tear the meat into bite-size pieces. Up to you if you want to include the crispy skin (I do!). Set aside. Also up to you if you want to scrape all the sticky chicken fat from the sheet and include this (I do!).
  • Reserve Pasta Water – just before you drain the pasta, scoop off about a cup of the starchy water and set aside.
  • Combine - drain the pasta and return to the pan. Tip in all the other ingredients - roasted veg, shredded chicken, tomatoes and basil sauce. A little at a time, add as much of the reserved pasta water as you need to get the consistency you want. Combine everything gently but thoroughly before serving.

Notes

 

Is this recipe low FODMAP?

*Yes. With a few caveats:
  • Be sure to use Japanese/Kent pumpkin (rather than butternut). This is readily available in most supermarkets as an alternative.
  • Limit the prepped weight of red capsicum to 160g.
  • Make the basil sauce as stated in the recipe, rather than using shop-bought. Commercially available pesto usually has fodmap-containing ingredients like garlic.
  • Use gluten-free pasta. Using gluten-free pasta makes the whole dish gluten-free here (there no other gluten-containing ingredients).
  • Limit the cherry tomatoes to 180g
 
Make Ahead
You can prepare the basil sauce, roast vegetables and shredded chicken up to 2 days in advance. Keep refrigerated until ready to use. When ready to serve, reheat the chicken and veg gently in a medium saucepan on the stove top while you cook the pasta (the basil sauce and tomatoes do not need to be heated first).

 
Leftovers
Reheat well, either gently on the stovetop or in the microwave.