One Pot Summer Vegetable Pasta
This One Pot Summer Vegetable Pasta is a quick and easy summer dinner recipe that uses fresh zucchini, yellow squash, and tomatoes to make a simple pasta dinner that is ready in 30 minutes or less!
One Pot Summer Vegetable Pasta
This easy One Pot Summer Vegetable Pasta is all about simple, summer ingredients and very little clean-up, because we all know the last thing you want to do in the summer is spend your night in a hot kitchen washing dishes. Fresh zucchini, yellow squash, and ripe tomatoes are tossed with perfectly cooked pasta and a delicious vinaigrette for the ultimate 30 minute meal!
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I tried to keep this recipe light and fresh so there are more vegetables than pasta. The thinly cut zucchini and squash are good enough to eat on their own and the bright, ripe tomatoes are my favorite part of summer. The penne pasta gives it just that little extra something that turns it into a complete meal.
What is in Vegetable Pasta?
- Penne pasta
- Onion
- Zucchini
- Yellow squash
- Grape tomatoes
- Basil
- Parmesan cheese
Instead of tomato sauce I tossed everything in a homemade Italian vinaigrette made with olive oil, red wine vinegar, a little lemon juice, onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper.
How to Make One Pot Summer Vegetable Pasta
- Add olive oil and onions to a 12 inch skillet and cook over medium high heat until softened. This takes 3-4 minutes.
- Add the pasta, zucchini, yellow squash, and tomatoes to the skillet.
- Pour 4 cups of cold water and salt into the pan.
- Turn the heat up to high bring the water to a boil cooking everything together until the pasta is al dente. Your time may vary based on the pasta you use but mine took 10 minutes. No need to drain the pasta all of the water should be absorbed/evaporate as it cooks. Note: If you feel like the water is disappearing before your pasta is finished cooking you can add another 1/4 cup of water.
- While the pasta cooks whisk all of the vinaigrette ingredients together.
- When the pasta is ready pour the vinaigrette over it and add the fresh basil and Parmesan. Toss together and serve immediately.
Tip: For the best results you want to use a 12 inch skillet so the water is spread out and will come to a boil faster and be absorbed faster.
You can’t forget the cheese! I like to grate it over the pasta while everything is still hot so it melts into the noddles, sauce and vegetables. Yum! To save time on a busy weeknight I cut all of my vegetables on the weekend so when I need to make the recipe all I have to do is grab all of the ingredients, toss them into my skillet and in 20 minutes or less I have dinner made for everyone!
Looking for More Easy One Pot Meals?
- One Pot Mexican Chicken and Rice
- One Pot Creamy Chicken Tortellini
- One Pot Shrimp Linguine
- One Pot Chicken Cacciatore
- One Pot Three cheese and Sausage Ziti
- One Pot Creamy Bacon and Peas Pasta
- One Pot Jambalaya
- One Pot Parmesan Chicken and Orzo
- More One Pot Recipes
ONE POT SUMMER VEGETABLE PASTA
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One Pot Summer Vegetable Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 cup Onion, diced
- 1 Tbsp Olive oil
- 8 ounces Penne pasta
- 2 Zucchini, thinly sliced
- 2 Yellow squash, sliced
- 1 pint Grape tomatoes
- 4 cup Water, cold
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Basil, fresh
- 1 cup Parmesan, grated
Vinaigrette
- 1/4 cup Olive oil
- 2 tablespoons Red wine vinegar
- 2 teaspoons Lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon Garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon Onion powder
- 1/8 teaspoon Salt
- 1/8 teaspoon Pepper
Instructions
- Add olive oil and onions to a 12 inch skillet and cook over medium high heat until softened.
- Add the pasta, zucchini, yellow squash, and tomatoes to the skillet.
- Pour 4 cups of cold water and salt into the pan.
- Turn the heat up to high bring the water to a boil cooking everything together until the pasta is al dente and the water is absorbed.
- While the pasta cooks whisk all of the vinaigrette ingredients together.
- When the pasta is ready pour the vinaigrette over it and add the fresh basil and Parmesan. Toss together and serve immediately.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published on May 3,2 016. It was republished with an updated recipe and new photos on July 10, 2019.
This looks soooo refreshing! Love the summer veggies in the pasta! Thanks for inspiring our next one-pot pasta dish! We have all the ingredients on hand. YUM!
Oh wow! This looks amazing! I love that it is cooked all in one pot – easy recipes with less mess is a winner in my book! (client)
Just wondering if you could use spaghetti sauce instead of marinara sauce? The grocery store in town did not have marinara sauce and I wanted to make this tomorrow.
Spaghetti sauce would work fine! I hope you like it 🙂
Hello Fabulous! I’m stopping by to let you know that your amazing dish will be featured at our party that starts tonight at 7 pm. Woo hoo! Pinned and tweeted. I hope to see you tonight! Lou Lou Girls
Oh no!!! I bought the wrong type of pasta, now I have to do something dangerous…improvise!
Wish me luck!
I bet it was still delicious 🙂
You weren’t kiddin’ when you said this pasta would change your life! I was skeptical but made it for my family of 4, including 2 teenagers age 13 and 15. So fresh, so light, but so filling. Grating your own parmesean is key, it really adds that extra textural and visual kick. While my teenagers tried to pick around the veggies, I felt comfort in knowing they were eating something wholesome. Saving this recipe.
I’m so glad you and your family liked it. It’s one of my summertime favorites!
I made this recipe last night and my husband and I thought it was delicious! I had googled “veggie pasta recipe” and your recipe came up, and what was funny was you put it in the context of a perfect soccer night meal, and I also needed something quick for our daughter’s soccer night! I followed the recipe exactly, with the exception of using regular Barilla pasta (tri-color rotini), so instead of taking 10 minutes to be done, it took closer to 15. Thank you very much, I will be making this again!
Glad the family enjoyed it!
This was delicious! However, I must’ve done something wrong. I ended up with way too much water. I had to drain about half out before everything got too mushy. But we loved the flavor and definitely will make this again. I might try less water and add more during the process if needed.
I also ended up with way too much water. Veggies give off lots of water i guess! I also next time might use the combination of water broth and wine for added flavor. And I might add the soft veggies later in the process
Added minced garlic to the onions and added a cup of cut up green beans with the pasta and other veggies. Yum!
Yum!
Trying this tonight. My garden is over flowing with squash and I’m looking for all recipes zucchini related. There are no onions at my grocery store because of a recall so I’m adding garlic.