Four Pepper Pasta with Grilled Tomatoes

Here is what we had for lunch yesterday....

Luke picked, washed, and sliced tomatoes.

Parker, our grill master, grilled them up.

Elias picked a nice variety of peppers (Hungarian, sweet cherry, and jalapeno...yes, all the green are jalapeno) and an onion.

We added pepper flakes and ground black pepper.

Once the peppers and onions were soft, the grilled tomatoes went in the pan. It simmered for about 5 minutes or so, while the ravioli cooked.

And here is the finished product! Yummy!!!

Summer Veggie Pasta Salad

What more can we say? : )

Pesto

Pesto

1 1/2 T walnuts

1 1/2 T pignolis (pine nuts), toasted

5 diced garlic cloves

2 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

3/4 cups good olive oil

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

*Place the walnuts, pignolis, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process for 30 seconds. Add the basil leaves, salt, and pepper. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube and process until the pesto is finely pureed. Add the Parmesan and puree for a minute. Serve, or store the pesto in the refrigerator or freezer with a thin film of olive oil on top.

Makes 2 cups

***While looking for pesto recipes, I found this tip. I have *not* tried it, but many on the board had and said it works.

To keep this summer goodness for winter use, spoon your pesto into a freezer container, leaving some head room. Cover top of pesto with olive oil, cover container and freeze. Defrost in fridge to use. After each use, make sure the top of the pesto is covered with olive oil, or it will turn black (like an avocado). It will keep in the fridge about a week.

Mixed Veggie Pasta

Here is one of our favorite summer recipes. It is yummy and changes as the garden does.

Mixed Veggie Pasta

-your favorite pasta (we like farfalle)

-a variety of your favorite garden veggies. : ) yes, it's a very scientific recipe.

-meat as you like

tonight we used:

onions, chopped
carrots, finely chopped

beets, chopped

pea pods, cut into thirds,

swiss chard, cut into strips

(soon we will be adding beans, summer squash, tomatoes, a variety of peppers, etc)

saute onions in olive oil. Start adding other veggies from the most firm (carrots) to the most tender (swiss chard...it gets piled on top, then I simply set the cover on top). We gently soften everything...you can saute as much or as little as you like.

put your favorite pasta in a dish and layer these yummy veggies over the top. We also added a little well seasoned/herbed locally raised ground beef. yum!