It’s summer squash season, which seems ironic, because it doesn’t feel like summer anymore. The weather is cooling, the geese are starting to move south, the orchards are starting to open for the season. Fall is starting to creep in. We’re soaking up the rest of summer though, and spending a lot of time tending our garden. We have an abundance of summer squash, which is wonderful, I love making lemon garlic roasted vegetables as a quick sheet pan side and the star of that dish is always the summer squash.
I could definitely eat our lemon garlic roasted vegetables every day, but we decided to mix it up and incorporate summer squash into homemade marinara sauce.
First I roasted the summer squash and onion with a little bit of olive oil, Italian seasoning, and salt. I actually roasted my veggies in the Pampered Chef Deluxe Air Fryer (this thing is a beast, they were perfectly roasted in 15 minutes!) with my small stone bar pans.
Then I made my homemade marinara, with less salt, and completely omitting onions, and Italian seasonings, since those were all being roasted. So my marinara sauce was a little bit sweeter than usual until I added in the roasted vegetables, then it was perfectly balanced and absolutely delicious. You had the sweetness of the tomatoes and onions in the marinara with perfectly savory summer squash.
I served this over spaghetti and a side of pepper jack grilled cheese, because I forgot about garlic bread and we needed something to soak up all of this amazing sauce.
| Roasted Summer Squash Marinara | Print |
- 1 medium summer squash, diced
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced fine
- Italian seasoning
- pinch of salt
- 1 can tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3 or 4 basil leaves
- dash of jalapeno powder
- In a large bowl, place onions and summer squash. Add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil, enough to coat vegetables. Season with a couple shakes of Italian seasoning and a pinch of salt.
- Roast in oven at 425* for about 20-30 minutes or roast in your air fryer for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil in a sauce pan, add garlic slices and saute for about a minute.
- Add tomato sauce to sauce pan, stir in 1 tablespoon sugar and a dash of jalapeno powder. Add your basil leaves and heat to boiling.
- Once boiling reduce heat to simmer.
- Once vegetables are roasted add them to sauce and continue to simmer for about 10 minutes. Taste the sauce and add salt if needed.
- Serve with your favorite pasta.
Written by, Brittany, the geek behind the blog. Sharing tips and stories from the trenches on navigating life homeschooling and homesteading as a stay at home mom.