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Paula Deen Cuts the Fat, 250 Favorite Recipes All Lightened Up, Exclusive: Fusilli with Roasted Vegetables and Ricotta

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Besides grilling, roasting is one of my favorite ways to cook vegetables. They always turn out golden and sweet. This simple dish is a great way to serve roasted veggies. Just toss them through store- bought or homemade marinara and the pasta shape of your choice and dollop on ricotta. It’s fast and fantastic, y’all.

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces whole-wheat or regular fusilli
  • 1 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and then sliced crosswise into ¼-inch-thick pieces (about 2 cups)
  • 1 small head broccoli, cut into florets (about 4 cups)
  • 1 pint (10 ounces) grape tomatoes, cut in half
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, finely chopped
  • 1 red onion, halved and cut into ½-inch slices
  • 3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 ½ cups store-bought marinara sauce
  • 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
  • Fresh basil, for garnish

 Directions

1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the fusilli according to the package directions. Drain well.

2. Preheat the oven to 450 °F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and grease the paper with cooking spray.

3. Combine the zucchini, broccoli, tomatoes, bell pepper, red onion, and garlic on the baking sheet. Spray the vegetables with cooking spray and season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss well to coat the vegetables.

4. Roast until the tomatoes have shriveled and the veggies are golden, about 15 minutes. Discard the garlic cloves.

5. In a medium saucepan, heat the marinara sauce until warm. Toss the pasta with the sauce to coat, then add the vegetables and toss again. You can either fold in the ricotta now or everyone can add a scoop to their bowls. Garnish with fresh basil.

Serves 4 to 6

 

More about Paula Deen Cuts the Fat, 250 Recipes All Lightened Up

Paula Deen has lost over 40 pounds and has maintained her weight loss for over two years by swapping out ingredients to reduce fat and calories. Paula’s key to weight loss is moderation and accountability, and one day a week she still enjoys good old southern cooking with biscuits and all. One does not have to give up taste when reducing calories, and these recipes are a testament to that. Paula shares 250 of her favorite recipes lightened up. This brand-new, New York Times best-selling cookbook presents lightened up versions of fifty of her classic southern recipes and presents new recipes that cut the calories but not the delicious taste.

The New-York Times Best-Selling cookbook, Paula Deen Cuts the Fat, 250 Favorite Recipes All Lightened Up, is now available now at AmazonBarnes & NobleTarget, and your local bookstores!

Paula Deen - As a young girl growing up in Albany, Georgia, Paula Deen never dreamed she would become an American icon. As a young mother, Paula was living the American dream — married to her high school sweetheart and raising two adorable boys — when tragedy struck. Her parents died, her marriage failed and she began a prolonged battle with agoraphobia. With her boys in their teens and her family near homelessness, Paula took her last $200, reached deep inside her soul and started The Bag Lady, a home-based catering company that marked the start of Deen's professional cooking career. With sons Jamie and Bobby delivering lunch-and-love-in-a-bag, beginning in June 1989, Paula turned her life around by sharing what she knew best, traditional Southern cooking.

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