Roasted Zucchini Pepper Pasta

There are times when I begin writing a blog post and I am overcome almost immediately with the notion that my time would be better spent recreating and re-eating the thing I am covering in said post. It takes tremendous willpower to continue sitting at my desk, writing about the nice-looking photo above and remembering how delightful it felt in my belly. Today is one of those days, so bear with me!

Yes, this pasta dish was incredible. AND nearly all local to boot. The summer is the most fabulous time for my mouth, on account of the abundance of produce in and around my life. Thanks as always to my local farmer's market (and my good friends) for making fresh vegetables available to my tummy. One beautiful thing about this sauce, which I think highlights one benefit of cooking with local produce, is that it is not heavily seasoned. The vegetables sort of speak for themselves in this one.

Here's what I used to make this sauce:

roughly 1 1/2 Cup chopped zucchini (or about 1 "normal size" zucchini - though mine was about the size of a small child)
1/2 Cup roasted red peppers
4 leaves fresh basil, chopped
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 an heirloom tomato - all yellowish and reddish, diced

(also you need pasta. obvi)

To begin, go ahead and boil your pasta water to prepare your elbows or whichever pasta you prefer, because the sauce doesn't take too long. I must say, this sauce goes disgustingly well with elbows.

Note: if you don't already "have" roasted red peppers, go ahead and do this first. I have a post on roasting red peppers here if you need some guidance. You obviously may used jarred roasted red peppers but they tend to be pretty pricey. It's quite silly. I roast some every so often and keep them in the fridge and pretend they are from Kroger's, which turns out to be a bad idea because they won't last as long.

Heat a dab of olive oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Toss in the zucchini and sauté for about 2 minutes, or until slightly browned. Remove from heat and let these cool. Throw them into a food processor, along with the roasted red peppers, chopped basil and salt, and process for about one minute.

Return the sauce to a small saucepan and add the diced tomatoes. Heat for about 5 minutes on low, stirring regularly.

HEY and I bet you thought there was going to be more here, didn't you? No. It is that simple. Other than to say of course, that I garnished mine with a dollop of Tofutti's Better Than Sour Cream, which contains no hydrogenated oils and is delicious to boot. Also a sprig of basil. YUM town.

Sweet Rosemary Turnip Chips

And for my weekly plebeian confession to you, I've never really cooked with turnips. But my dear friends at the Bowling Green Community Farmer's Market supplied me with these and here we are. Like any good root vegetable, they are quite versatile - they're good roasted, mashed, fried, baked, boiled, thrown at moving vehicles. So today I made chips out of these suckers, on account of that's what we do with new vegetables.

Honest, these would truly be more "chip-like" fried, but it's 2013 and we need to be good to our bodies, yes? So preheat your oven to 400 and start slicing. Here's what you'll need:

A bundle of turnips - how many did I use here? Unsure. Maybe 6. Again, new to this.

a tablespoon or two of olive oil

2 tsp dried rosemary

1 T honey (or agave if you're not down with honey. One of these days I might post a rant about why I vehemently support local honey, why I'm vegan, and why I think it is important to be good to our earth and our bodies. One day!)

So this is simple. Now that your oven is heating, search the house for the best slicing knife you have. It's good to slice these as thinly as you can. Hell, use of them fancy burshz-wah slicing attachments to your food processor, I don't care. Of course, first you need to rinse and peel your turnips, then get to slicing. (Balmorhea is good slicing music, if you were wondering.)

Toss these slices with remaining ingredients - olive oil, honey and rosemary. Then spread them on a baking sheet with as few slices piled on top of each other as possible. Stick those shits in the oven for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, remove from the oven and flip each slice with a fork. Because these are hot. Duh.Stick back in the oven for another 20 minutes. 

Voila! I served mine with sauteed broccoli and grape tomatoes. Yum dawg.

Holler if you're down with turnips - really, I could use some root vegetable inspiration. Rootspiration?