Pasta Primavera With Foccacia.

I don’t know whether I’ve mentioned this in, oh, a day or so, but: We’ve got a lot of squash to work our way through at the moment.

Thank heaven for pasta primavera – that forgiving dinner that allows you to throw in whatever vegetables you have on hand and make a great meal out of it all!  I like to use the sauce recipe that I found eons ago over at $5 Dinners, and it’s never let me down.  Tonight, instead of red wine vinegar I used balsamic, and the sauce was no worse for wear.  You really can’t do anything to hurt it!

For some protein, tonight I baked up a batch of Sophie’s Kitchen’s breaded vegan shrimp, and by the time the pasta was ready, so were the shrimp!  Then all that was left was to whip up the sauce and add in a plethora of veggies.  On tonight’s docket: Two yellow squash (why skimp? We have so many of them!) and plenty of green beans, both products of Great Country Farms, as well as a container of grape tomatoes.  I let everything soften up a bit for 5 minutes or so before adding in the cooked shrimp and, finally, the pasta, stirring everything around to combine it.

The ease of this sauce always tickles me.  What starts out as a couple pats of butter and a couple spoonfuls of flour, mixed with some almond milk, becomes this creamy sauce that tastes so rich!  I love how deceptively simple it is to make – and to consume, I might add.

On the side for tonight’s meal, I heated up the remainder of a loaf of focaccia we bought on Saturday at the farmers’ market, courtesy of Maribeth’s Bakery (one of our favorite local bakeries!).  I just sliced it into two (large) slices, wrapped the focaccia in foil, and baked it at 350 as the vegetables cooked.  By the time the main course was ready, the focaccia was warm and the cherry tomatoes embedded within it were bubbly.  Perfect!

I don’t mind telling you that we ate with gusto – the vegetables were soft, yet still had a bit of bite, and the primavera sauce was wonderfully creamy and flavorful, with hints of garlic and balsamic.  The vegan shrimp brought some gravitas to the dish and gave us a boost of protein to boot.  And the focaccia could’ve been the star of the show, it was so well-received!

I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of pasta primavera for this summertime’s bounty!  But I can’t complain a bit.

:)