Farmer's Market Pasta

You guys- I made the BEST dinner ever over the weekend. It was fresh and healthy, and I didn't even follow a recipe!  So so so good!!  (And I'm totally getting hungry right now just thinking about it. Not kidding.)

Anyway, it has been so beautiful around here lately that I decided to pack the boys up on Saturday morning and head to our big public market to see what we could find.  The highlight of their time there was watching a live chicken go crazy as a woman pulled it out of its cage by the feet.  If you see my children any time soon, please tell them the lady was taking it home in the box, cutting the duct tape off the feet, and keeping it as a pet.  Now... on to the best VEGETARIAN meal I've ever made...

Among some other culinary treasures, I came home with asparagus, onions and broccoli. The thing about the Public Market is that while the food is fresh and cheap, it also needs to be eaten within approximately 5 minutes because it's not contaminated with all of those crazy pesticides that you'll find on the stuff at the grocery store.  So I needed to come up with a plan, stat. This is what happened:

Oh yeah, I added some carrots, too.  Are you salivating yet?

And then this:

Yep, just threw some cooked spaghetti right in there. Cuz, you know, why wouldn't I?



Voila!!

You too can recreate this meal of fresh deliciousness.  Here's the recipe:

Farmer's Market Pasta

Olive Oil

Garlic

A sliced onion

Some sliced carrots

A bunch of asparagus (cut each stalk in half)

Some broccoli (cut in to large bite-sized pieces

cooked spaghetti (or other kind of macaroni)

A couple pats of butter (optional)

parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

1. Cook the asparagus and broccoli until they are tender-crisp.  (Put them in boiling water for about 2 minutes, then quickly place them in ice water to halt the cooking process)

2. Heat the olive oil and garlic, add the carrots first since they take longest to cook

3. Add the onion, broccoli, and asparagus. Coat all vegetables with the oil and garlic.  Saute until heated through, yet still a little crisp.

4. Stir in the spaghetti, add the butter if you'd like for a little flavor

5. Coat the vegetables and pasta with a generous coating of parmesan cheese and add a little salt and pepper

6. Serve immediately. You will probably want to eat this right out of the pan because it will look and smell so good.  Try to make it in to a bowl.  Because, you know, you're classy.

Let me know what you think of this dish.  I loved it so much that I made it again last night. This time I omitted the butter, used farfalle instead of spaghetti, and only added asparagus and broccoli.  It was still amazing.

Hi! I just got home from the gym, and now I'm about to stuff my face!





Have a healthy day,

J