imple Vegetarian | Recipe of the Month: Summer Pasta Salad

Once once more, our basil crop has gotten out of hand. Today, Brian had to pull out whole plant life due to the fact that they had grown so tall that they were shading the relaxation of the garden bed. He additionally picked, at the identical time, Early Girl tomatoes (the primary of the season, on account that every one our Sun Gold flowers this 12 months met with an early loss of life) and large cucumbers. (That makes twenty-4 cucumbers thus far, and the plants have only been generating for about a month. Our fridge is already full of pickles, and we have made each cucumber-based dish we understand of and long past trying to find greater. I expect we can properly say ten cucumber vines are too many.)

Anyway, a good way to think about a manner to apply all this bounty, Brian started out improvising. He chopped up the greens and started mixing them in with beans and pasta till the ratio appeared right. Asked to indicate a dressing to go with this combination, I proposed a lemon French dressing, which reminded Brian that he had some leftover lemon juice sitting within the freezer. So this have been given mixed with olive oil in a more or less 2-to-1 ratio, and he also threw in multiple cloves of garlic, because, properly, why might now not you? Then he tossed all of it collectively, and presto, a wholesome and colourful salad.

For a totally impromptu dinner, this modified into pretty tasty. The slight citrusy dressing changed into really the proper supplement to the clean veggies, and the garlic, in its raw usa, packed a super punch. Between us, we ate maximum of it, leaving handiest one lunch's well worth of leftovers. (Say what you can about the healthfulness of our eating regimen as an entire, you cannot accuse us of no longer consuming our greens?As a minimum not at some point of the summertime.)

So, when you consider that this ad hoc recipe proved this form of achievement, I hastened to dedicate it to paper earlier than we forgot it. Here, to your dining pride, is Brian's Summer Pasta Salad:

• 1 1/2 medium cucumbers (or 1 very large one), diced
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 1 tightly-packed cup basil leaves, finely shredded (Brian just chopped them coarsely, but we agreed that smaller pieces would probably distribute the flavor better)
• 1/4 pound tubettini pasta, cooked and drained
• 1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Toss everything together willy-nilly in a large mixing bowl. Let it sit for about 15 minutes to let the flavors mix, and serve.

Bon appétit!