Variation on a Theme

Yesterday Carole posted a quick pasta recipe she made up, using pasta, summer squash and zucchini.

It looked really good, and I just happened to have a summer squash and zucchini on hand from my CSA produce box. I decided to make something similar, though I didn’t have the cheese sauce mix she used.

I used my mandoline (well, actually a V-Slicer) to thinly slice the zucchini, yellow squash, and a Japanese eggplant from my garden. I layered them in a colander, salting them as I went, and let them sweat to release a bit of their excess liquid. Then I started boiling the water for the pasta, sliced up a few mushrooms, and gathered a few cherry tomatoes from the garden, which I cut in half. When the water was boiling, I tossed in a half a box of bowtie pasta. (It was probably only about 6 ounces, as the box is only 14.5 ounces, and I think I used 8 ounces out of it.) Then I rinsed off the squash and eggplant slices, patted them somewhat dry, and sauteed them with the mushrooms in some olive oil. When the pasta was done, I drained it, put it back in the pot, added in the squash mixture, the cherry tomatoes, a bit of kosher salt, a good sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese, and also a bit of Feta cheese. That was it – and it was delicious! Plenty for two large or three medium-sized dinners.

I had all sorts of fresh herbs in the garden I could have added to it, but I didn’t think about it. And really, it didn’t need it. I briefly considered adding garlic, but I’m glad I didn’t. It was perfect just as it was.

Thanks for the inspiration, Carole!