Pasta Surpreme

Garden fresh produce is now in full swing here.  My garden is producing nicely with cucumbers, zucchini and the starts of tomatoes.  The weather has been hot, humid with a fair amount of rain but a bit too hot slowing the ripening of tomatoes.   I discovered an amazing organic farm a short distance from us to supplement the foods I grow, produce I don't grow and secure a second source for organic, free range eggs.  The first trip to the organic farm I bought zuccini, Armenia cucumber, sweet peas, beets, sweet green pepper, sweet purple pepper, dill, and rainbow chard.

Once my garden starts producing combined with local in season produce it becomes more important to use up as much as possible home canned foods from the pantry canned the previous year.  Pasta dishes are a great way to use both garden fresh and home canned products as well as a leftovers.  There was a half of sirloin steak leftover so I decided to make a pasta dish using   home canned marinara sauce and home canned mushrooms as the base.  I chose organic raw sweet peas and a home grown zucchini (sautéed) for the additional toppings.  I garnished the pasta dish with fresh grated baby parmesan cheese.  The end result was Pasta Supreme!

The beauty of this type of dish is there is no real measuring.  It is very flexible too so is a great dish to use what you have on hand including the type of pasta.  Omitting the meat is quite easy for a vegetarian version.  Adding something raw like the sweet peas really makes the dish sparkle and the fresh grated cheese adds depth.