Vegetables will help ~ Ham Pie Sandwiches

16 May 2008

Vegetables will help

It's so hot, I'm going to die. I'm also considering getting back on the bike and going back to the store to get lots of crunchy vegetables that can then sit in the refrigerator and become cold before we make them into salads. Unfortunately, this involves going back outside.

Last night we were pretty much floored by the heat, but eventually turned on the oven anyway.

It's too hot pasta

little pasta shells
garlic
olive oil
hot pepper
red onion
frozen peas
zucchini
lots of fresh parsley
salt, pepper
grating cheese if you want it

Skin six or eight cloves of garlic and chop them into big chunks. Skin a quarter of a red onion and chop it up too. Finely mince a jalapeno or other hot pepper. Put these both in a sauté pan with several glugs of olive oil. Cook slowly. After ten minutes or so of slow softening, add a chopped zucchini and however many frozen peas you have. Salt and pepper the business, being sparing with salt and copious with pepper. Then chop up lots of parsley and set it aside. "Lots" in my case was the leaves of five or six branches. More would be good.

At some point, put on some pasta water, salt it, and bring it to a boil. Add pasta; simmer until done; drain. Clearly, other shapes than shells will work too. The shells are really nice with peas, though, since they can then turn out to be nice surprises.

When things are done, take all the business off the heat. Tip the pasta into the pan of oil and garlic business. Throw all the parsley on top. Wash a couple of dishes, letting the pan of food sit, so you won't have to do All of them at the end. Then stir everything together and put into bowls. If you want cheese, grate it. Then eat.

This business would be good with as many herbs as you can possibly find and also fresh spinach. It wants a frozen white wine too. We had frozen beer.

For lunch leftovers: instead of grating cheese, I cubed up a bunch of mozzarella and tossed it on top of the pasta. It was definitely delicious.

Now I actually don't feel hungry. I feel hungry every day, but I'm not hungry. It could be the heat, but it could also be the pasta.

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