My Own Test Kitchen: Ode to the Farmer's Market: Pasta Primavera

I heart the farmer's market. The produce is fresh, affordable, you get the chance to reduce your carbon footprint and at the same time support local farmers. Win-win-win-win.

But, as much as I love the farmer's market, sometimes I get a little excited and I buy too much. Or I don't plan what I'm buying and I get home and don't know what to do with everything! Given what I purchased most recently at the market, I decided to make a colorful Pasta Primavera.

Pasta Primavera
Makes: 6 servings
Start to finish: 1 hour

1 medium zucchini, sliced, halved
2 small yellow squash, sliced, halved
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 green peppers, cut into strips
1 large onion, diced
2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp oil
8 oz whole wheat linguine
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup 1% milk
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
2 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped
1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

The first thing you'll want to do is get all your chopping done. There's quite a bit of knife work in this recipe. For your squash, slice into 1/4 inch pieces and halve those. Halve your cherry tomatoes. If you're thinking about dicing a regular tomato, I did this, and I strongly discourage it, as they will disintegrate into nothingness as your food cooks. Chop your carrots into little matchsticks. Cut your peppers into strips, dice your onions, and chop the garlic cloves finely.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat with a tablespoon of oil. When heated, add the onions and garlic and saute for about 60 seconds. Add in all the other veggies and let them start to cook down.

Once the veggies start to become tender-crisp (about 5 minutes) add in 1 tablespoon flour. Allow the flour to cook for 30 seconds to prevent a raw flour taste in your sauce.

At this time, add the chicken broth, milk, salt and pepper and bring the mixture to a boil. While this is happening, you should also be boiling your linguine noodles.

Allow the sauce to cook down to half its original volume. This could take anywhere from 5-10 minutes.

When your linguine is al dente, drain it in a collander and toss it back into the pot you cooked it in. Add the veggies, sauce, cheese, and herbs. Toss 'til everything is evenly distributed in the dish.