For the Love of...: ...Grilled Vegetable Pasta with Black Olive Tapenade

Every so often you end up eating meat for so many days on end that you actually crave something lighter and vegetarian. Here is a recipe that takes advantage of the nice weather we've been having with grilled vegetables combined with a hearty black olive and sun dried tomato tapenade. This is a healthy vegetarian recipe that can be enjoyed alone or as a side dish. Feel free to experiment with whatever vegetables or herbs look good at the market that day including eggplant, corn, basil or even sage.

Ingredients:

- 4 roma tomatos halved and seeded

- 2 zucchini thickly sliced

- 2 large onions thickly sliced

- 2 red bell peppers

- 1lb button mushrooms

- 3 cloves of garlic

- 4 green onions

- 1 bunch of italian flat leaf parsley chopped

- 1 large package of pasta (we used rottini)

- 1 can of black olives

- 3 tbsp olive oil

- 4 tbsp balsamic vinegar

- 4 sun dried tomatoes chopped 

Method:

1. Start by making the tapanade by combining the olives, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, and half the parsley with olive oil, and balsamic vinegar in a food processor with salt and pepper. Puree until smooth and set a side.

2. Toss the zucchini, tomato, red bell pepper, onion, mushrooms and green onion with canola oil, salt and pepper and grill until slightly charred and tender. Allow the vegetables to cool and chop into rough cubes.

3. Cook your pasta according to the package directions.

4. Combine the pasta, vegetables and olive tapenade. Season the works once more with salt and pepper and a bit more balsamic vinegar till you're happy with the flavour. 

Enjoy!