This is what my friend Pepper Cory calls 'scrap cooking.' I need to go to the grocery tomorrow so this is what one does with some not very good winter tomatoes, a beginning- to-shrivel green pepper, a few left-over mushrooms, an onion, and some garlic. Slice or chop it all up, put in a roasting pan with a fair amount of olive oil, sprinkle with Cajun seasoned salt and roast at 350 till the onions are beginning to brown. Actually, I added the mushrooms after the first 20 minutes, not wanting them to disappear. I let the onions get good and cooked--black and crispy in some places.
I used farfalle noodles and while they were cooking, I tossed some frozen spinach into a pan of boiling water, turned it off, and let it sit till no longer frozen. Then I drained it well.When the pasta was done, I drained it and stirred it into the roasted veg and olive oil. At this point I added the drained spinach and tossed till all was well coated. (If I'd had fresh spinach, I'd have used that.) If you need more olive oil at this point, add it. Then I added some grated cheese (what our store calls Mexican mix) and some grated parmesan.This is one of those 'sum of the whole is greater than the parts' situations. The roasted tomatoes and onions take this to a whole new level.You should give this a name, said John, as we both scraped our bowls clean. So I did.