Pasta and Garden Veggies

It's hot here today, I mean like in the upper 90's, and I just don't do heat well.  That's why I moved to the Pacific Northwest from Arizona.  Fortunately you only have to hear me whine about this a couple times per year. 

Earlier today I thought about grilling steaks or burgers - but then got lazy and didn't want to run out to the store.  I'm glad I didn't, there's no way I would have been happy cooking outside!  So what do I decide on instead?  Making a holy mess of the kitchen, using every burner on the stovetop and dirtying what seemed like every pot, pan and utensil I own.  But it was worth it........

I haven't made pasta in awhile, and I've been thinking about the wonderful taste and texture of it lately.  I was going to make a quick marinara to top it with, but my husband said I should just toss it with olive oil and fresh veggies.  Ohhhh, good suggestion!  There's some zucchini and peas in the garden ready for picking!  But, I can't stop there.  I had to make it even more complicated than marinara would have been.  But it was worth it........

This is similar to the Bowl-O-Pasta I posted about in May, but here's what I did tonight:

Made the pasta dough, let it rest about 10 minutes, then used the pasta machine to flatten it to sheets and cut it into spaghetti.  While the pasta was hanging to dry for a bit, I got all of my ingredients ready for cooking.

The end result was a fantastically delicious pasta bowl with garlic and crushed red pepper infused olive oil*, fresh peas, pancetta, grilled zucchini, topped with pine nuts and fresh grated parmesan.  I finished with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.  In the words of Cisco Morris - oh, la, la!  My only wish is that the cherry tomatoes were ready too .......

~ Enjoy ~


* To make garlic and crushed red pepper infused olive oil: put some olive oil in a skillet, add a few sliced cloves of garlic, and crushed red pepper.  Gently warm the oil until you can start to smell the aroma of garlic, then turn off the heat.  Let sit about 10 minutes.