After
a relatively cool summer (we no longer know what normal is), the weather
decided to turn hot in early September. Having forgotten what “hot” feels like
(would you believe I was wearing fleece in Ireland in August?), of course I
didn’t feel like cooking, or at least, making anything that involved using heat.
But
I dutifully went to my small local farmers’ market, since I want to support the
vendors there, and found a lovely clutch of oval yellow tomatoes that called
out to me. And some little onions. I knew I had some tiny red peppers at home,
and my pot of herbs has somehow survived my neglect, so I also had chives and
oregano and parsley. And plenty of pasta.
I
wanted simple and I wanted colorful, and this is what I came up with.
End
of Summer Pasta
One
pound fresh tomatoes (the yellow ones were too pretty to pass up, but you can
use whatever you have handy)
4-5
small red sweet peppers (or mix and match: if you have red tomatoes, use yellow
and green peppers), sliced into matchsticks
2-3
small onions
Assorted
fresh herbs
Salt
and pepper
Olive
oil for sauteeing
Spaghetti
or other pasta
Slice
your tomatoes crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. Slice the onions and the peppers
to about the same thickness. Roughly chop the herbs.
Bring
a large pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta according to the package instructions.
In
a wide sauté pan, pour enough olive oil to cover (note: my daughter had given
me some exotic gourmet olive oil, so I threw in a dash of that too), and heat
over medium heat. Sautée the onions until they are limp but not brown. Add the
peppers and cook for a couple of minutes, until they soften. Add the tomatoes
and continue to cook over medium heat until they render some of their juice.
Add salt and pepper to taste. When you’re nearly ready to serve, add the herbs
and toss to distribute them (you don’t really need to cook these). |
| Adding ingredients one at a time |
The
entire cooking process should take no more than 10-15 minutes (after the
chopping, of course).
Place
individual servings of spaghetti in wide flat bowls, and top with a generous
helping of the sauce, and serve. And bid farewell to summer.
Counting the days until October 7th!
Available for preorder now at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
