As summative season comes in full swing and we all find ourselves bogged down with assignments and deadlines, sometimes we find ourselves skipping meals or not putting in the effort to make something nice to eat. This quick and delicious veggie pasta comes together in just a few minutes and leaves you satisfyingly full. Not only will the preparation and cooking time not take away too much from your work, but it is also great-tasting, healthy, and vegan too.

You also only need a few ingredients to make it! To start, you will want to chop up a courgetti, a handful of cherry tomatoes, a few sun-dried tomatoes, and a white onion, as shown below.

With just five main ingredients, this recipe comes together very easily

What makes this recipe special is the use of the oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes. Put this oil into a hot pan and begin to soften up the onions. The sun-dried tomato oil will add a richer and more unique flavour than simply using olive oil. After a few minutes of softening the onions, add in the cherry tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes and courgetti and cook these for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally. You may season this mixture to your liking while it cooks, I personally added some dried oregano and basil to the pan.

While the other ingredients cook and soften in the pan, bring a small pot of salted water to a boil and cook your pasta. For this recipe I used fusilli pasta, but you could use any pasta that suits your preferences, although a shorter pasta will most likely complement it best as it will hold the oil better and be easier to eat along with the large, roughly chopped courgette pieces.

Photo by Chloe

Once the pasta is cooked, reserve a small portion of the pasta cooking water (just a couple of tablespoons) and then drain the rest. Add the pasta into the pan with the other ingredients along with a little bit of the reserved pasta water. Mix everything together in the hot pan. Season to your liking with salt and pepper and you are ready to enjoy a quick, easy and substantial meal that does not take too much time away from working on summatives.

The finished product