Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta with Roasted Vegetables

This sun-dried tomato pesto with pasta and roasted vegetables is an easy weeknight dinner! You can adjust it to be gluten-free and/or vegan.

Updated by Kathryne Taylor on June 19, 2026

50 Reviews
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sun-dried tomato pesto with roasted vegetables
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This recipe features pasta tossed with homemade sun-dried tomato pesto and tons of roasted veggies. It’s fresh and filling, and leftovers keep well for lunch. It’s exactly what I’ve been craving lately.

My red pesto (pesto rosso) is a riff on traditional basil pesto, with sun-dried tomatoes in addition to fresh basil. Oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes are perfect for pesto because you can pour the delicious, tomato-infused extra-virgin olive oil right into the food processor.

Sun-dried tomatoes are super rich in umami flavor, so they easily take the place of Parmesan, although you can certainly add some if you’d like.

“Thank you for this recipe! It is a staple in our house, and I make it often for guests, always with rave reviews. I recently made it with roasted butternut squash and kale and it was fantastic. The cherry on top is that it is such a breeze to assemble – I even let my toddler help me assemble the ingredients!”

Featured Review by Alex

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ingredients
sun-dried tomato pesto before blending

Fun Variations & Options

I like my pasta with tons of vegetables, so I roasted a big pan of summer veggies with a splash of balsamic vinegar to liven them up. In the cooler months, try it with roasted broccoli or delicata squash.

You can play around with pasta shapes as well. Curly shapes really grab hold of pesto, but penne would work, too. To lighten it up, cook up some fettuccine or linguine and supplement with squash noodles like I did last summer. Yum.

The red pesto is quite versatile. Spread it on a sandwich or toast, serve it as a vegetable dip, or thin it out with extra olive oil (or even some water) and use it as a sauce for any number of things.

Watch How to Make This Pasta

sun-dried tomato pesto after blending
vegetables before roasting

Serving Suggestions

For serving, consider a fresh green salad, like my Super Simple Arugula Salad or Vegetarian Italian Chopped Salad. I loved it with leftover Greek broccoli salad, which also includes sun-dried tomatoes (can you tell I’m a big fan?).

stirring red pesto into pasta
sun-dried tomato pesto pasta in bowl

Please let me know how your recipe turns out in the comments! I love hearing from you.

sun-dried tomato pesto pasta recipe
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Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta with Roasted Vegetables

  • Author: Kathryne Taylor
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 30 mins
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 4 to 6 servings
  • Diet: Vegetarian

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 50 reviews

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This sun-dried tomato pesto with pasta and roasted vegetables is an easy weeknight dinner! You can make it gluten-free and/or vegan with slight adjustments (see notes). Recipe yields 4 to 6 main servings.

Ingredients

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

  • One 6.7-ounce jar sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil*
  • 1 cup packed fresh basil leaves (about 1 ½ ounces), plus extra for garnishing
  • ¼ cup slivered almonds
  • 3 to 4 cloves garlic, to taste
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • ¼ to ½ teaspoon salt, to taste
  • Pinch red pepper flakes
  • ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • Optional: ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan or nutritional yeast to taste

Pasta and roasted vegetables

  • 8 ounces whole grain pasta (gemelli, rotini or penne)
  • 1 medium zucchini, diced
  • 1 medium yellow squash, diced
  • 1 medium red bell pepper (or orange or yellow), diced
  • 1 medium yellow or white onion, diced
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • Salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. To roast the vegetables: Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Whisk together the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. On a half-sheet pan or other large, rimmed baking sheet, combine the diced zucchini, yellow squash, bell pepper and onion. Drizzle the olive oil mixture over the vegetables, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss with your hands until the vegetables are evenly coated. Arrange the vegetables in a single layer. Bake for about 30 to 40 minutes, tossing halfway, until they are cooked through and golden.
  2. To cook the pasta: Bring a large post of salted water to boil. Cook pasta until al dente, according to package directions. Before draining, reserve about 1 cup pasta cooking water. Transfer the cooked pasta to a large serving bowl.
  3. To make the pesto: First, toast the almonds in a small skillet over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until fragrant and starting to turn golden on the edges, about 4 minutes. In the bowl of your food processor (a blender might work, too), combine the sun-dried tomatoes and their oil, the basil, toasted almonds, garlic, lemon juice, ¼ teaspoon salt and a pinch of red pepper flakes.
  4. Blend, scraping down the sides as necessary, until the contents are mixed together and roughly uniform. Drizzle in the olive oil while running the machine and blend until you’ve reached a relatively smooth, pesto-like consistency. If you’d like to add Parmesan, stir it into the pesto now. Taste and stir in additional salt and pepper, if necessary. The pesto will be thick, but we’ll thin it out with cooking water soon.
  5. Pour the pesto into the warm pasta and drizzle in ¼ cup reserved cooking water. Toss to combine, adding more splashes of cooking water to thin as necessary. Toss in the roasted vegetables. Sprinkle with some chopped fresh basil and serve. This recipe keeps well in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 4 days.

Notes

Recipes referenced during the making of this recipe: Giada’s penne with sun-dried tomato pesto, Minimalist Baker’s sun-dried tomato pesto pasta and my spicy roasted ratatouille spaghetti.

*Sun-dried tomato notes: My jar amounted to about 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes and ¼ cup olive oil.

Make it vegan/dairy free: Don’t add Parmesan. Feel free to mix in some nutritional yeast for some cheese-like flavor, but the sun-dried tomatoes and toasted almonds are pretty rich in umami as it is.

Make it gluten free: Use gluten-free pasta.

Make it nut free: Skip the almonds altogether.

Nutrition

The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.

  • Category: Entree
  • Cuisine: Italian

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