Super Summer Pasta
Believe it or not, one of Squirrelly, Jr.’s very favorite foods is squash. I know. He’s just weird.
But a mom has to take advantage of a child’s particular weirdnesses. So, I’ve been working on different ways to make squash for him. Generally, he prefers it sauteed instead of boiled. No surprise there – I’m in total agreement with him on that. Baked squash works for him, too, though.
Of course, man cannot live on squash alone. Besides, we had absolutely beautiful heirloom cherry tomatoes in our CSA basket from Downing Hollow Farm this week along with zucchini and assorted summer squash. We just had to put it all together with a little something special we brought back for Teh Boy from Harmoni Market in Orlando.
Super Summer Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb Squid Ink Angel Hair Pasta You can substitute regular pasta.
- 3 zucchini squash julienned
- 1/2 c minced onion
- 1 c cherry tomatoes halved
- 10 leaves of basil chiffonade-cut
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- sea salt and cayenne pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1/2 c of pasta cooking liquid. Toss pasta with 1 tbsp of olive oil.
- In hot pasta pan, saute onion in 1 tbsp of olive oil, salt and pepper until translucent.
- Add zucchini ribbons and toss to coat. Saute until ribbons begin to bend, approximately 2 minutes.
- Add tomatoes and basil. Saute for 2 minutes until tomatoes are beginning to release juice and zucchini is tender.
- Add pasta, reserved liquid and remaining olive oil. Toss to blend all ingredients together. Serve immediately.
The boy ain’t weird for liking squash. My grandfather overplanted zucchini one year and came up with the slogan “SQUASH WILL FEED THE WORLD.” He and my grandmother were harvesting twice a day and couldn’t even give it all away.
A couple of years ago I did an autumn squash project–grabbing a different one from the store or farmer’s market each week and learning how to fix it. Acorn proved to be my long standing favorite, while turban was delicious but difficult to handle. And I love all the weird multicolored summer squash hybrids that show up at farmers markets.
When I get a little bogged down by too much of one vegetable (overabundance in the garden, Farmer’s Market CSA box. etc.), I turn for recipes to veganyumyum.com . Though not a vegan myself, she really does a great job of putting together unusual and exceptionally delicious vegetable recipes. And the pictures? Let’s just say I’ve been tempted to lick my screen more than once. She’s got a good helping of squash recipes, as well (no pun intended).