GARDEN FRESH PASTA PRIMAVERA RECIPE

Thought it was time for another recipe/food idea.

And this is one of my new favorite dishes.  We love it because you can use just about any fresh vegetable, though this combination is our favorite.  And what makes it great is that it's just fresh veggies, they aren't even cooked!  Below is a bowl of tomatoes, squash, zucchini and bell peppers.  Here is how we did it:

Garden Fresh Pasta Primavera

We went to the Farmer's Market and picked up some fresh veggies; 3 yellow squash, a package of cherry tomatoes (pint), 3 zucchini, and a bag of assorted yellow, orange and red mini bell peppers

(since they are minis, we used about 8 of them).

We also grabbed a container of fresh basil pesto (4 oz container) and a package of dried spaghetti.

We cut the cherry tomatoes in half and then sliced all the vegetables into long, thin strips (a mandolin slicer with the julienne setting made it very easy).  It's most important to cut them this way so that they soften and will semi cook when the hot pasta is added to them.  Otherwise, you will end up with crunchy raw vegetables and this dish works better when they are softened.

We put them in a bowl and poured the pesto over them (photo above), stirring it all to mix it up.  While we were cutting the vegetables, we boiled some salted water and cooked the spaghetti until done.

We drained the pasta, reserved a 1/2 cup of liquid, and then immediately put the still hot pasta into the vegetable/pesto mixture and stirred.  The heat from the pasta softens the thinly sliced veggies and warms them up.  It also melts the pesto.  Next, we poured in a bit of the reserved pasta water until we created a sort of sauce with the pesto in a consistency we liked

(this part is entirely optional).

Then we just dished it into some bowls and ate it up

(a few Parmesan shavings were put on this dish after the photo was taken).

Garden Fresh Pasta Primavera

Fresh veggies never tasted better!

2nd Man makes fresh pasta often, check.  I know basil will grow well at the farm, check.  Now we just need the veggies.  Can't wait till next Spring, check.