a plethora of produce

We've been rocking the farmer's market produce lately. I don't know how we've eaten so many fruits and vegetables, but we have. We hit up Greer Farmer's Market and/or Taylors Farmers Market on Thursday afternoons and either the downtown Greenville Saturday Market or TR  market on Saturday mornings, with plenty of grocery store stops and occasional visits to Fisher's in between. Whew.

Even though this heat is kiiiiling me, I'm trying to embrace this last bit of summer because I know all the delicious produce will start dwindling as the heat does. And that makes me a little sad.

We normally try to keep it healthy, grilling or roasting vegetables and lean meats, but after a particularly productive market haul I wanted to make this throwback dish from France. We made it then because you can make it entirely on a stovetop - remember, we didn't have an oven in France. It was delicious then and it's still delicious now.

It's also reasonably healthy. We used three cups of fusilli pasta because I wanted to finish off a bag, and we had something like 900 grams of squash and zucchini, so I wanted it to be balanced. This made several meals for us - we estimated about six. It also reheats well, and you can customize it to your family's tastes. If you have a lot of produce on your hands (um, Meg and Wes, I'm looking at y'all and your insane tomato crop), this is a great, easy recipe to use some up.

xoxo,
E & B

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summer veggie pasta

ingredients:
**none of this is exact. Use what you've got on hand/what you prefer.
pasta of your choice (we used 3 cups dried Trader Joe's fusilli pasta)
1-2 cloves garlic, depending on your taste - we like a lot of garlic
summer squash (zucchini, yellow squash, whatever)
1 tomato, chopped, or a handful of cherry tomatoes
big handful of chopped fresh basil (or your herb of choice)
1/2 cup shredded or shaved Parmesan cheese (do not use the powdered stuff)
healthy drizzle Trader Joe's Black Truffle-flavored EVOO
plenty of freshly ground sea salt and cracked black pepper

directions:
Put water on to boil for pasta.
Heat regular olive oil in a pan, and briefly saute garlic.
Add squash to pan and cook until soft, but still with a bite.
Add tomatoes toward the end; they don't need to cook long.
Cook pasta according to package directions
Mix pasta with veggies.
Drizzle truffle oil on top, and mix well with basil, Parmesan, salt and pepper.
Adjust seasonings to your liking, and devour!

nutrition:
This is going to vary wildly depending on what pasta and veggies you use (and how much of each). But the way we made it, it made about 6 servings, each at roughly 250 calories apiece.