Linguine with Squash and Green Beans

I whipped up this yummy dish in about 30 min.

The garden is producing lots of yellow squash right now so it will be prevalent in many dishes over the next few months. Other veggies should be ripe soon but for now it's yellow squash, which is fine by me because it is a tasty and versatile food.

To start this dish I put a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil (hereafter abbreviated EVOO for all you Rachael Ray fans) and I do mean generous, I would guess at least a 1/4 to 1/3 a cup. The "sauce" portion of this dish is the oil. Don't worry, EVOO is heart-healthy and all natural. I added a diced sweet onion to the hot oil and sauteed that until it began to get translucent. I then added 3-4 cloves of crushed garlic (maybe a tablespoon if you use crushed in a jar) and a diced yellow squash. I seasoned the dish with salt and pepper (don't be stingy with the salt, nothing else in this recipe has any*) and added a little bit of dried oregano and a lot bit of dried basil. If you have fresh herbs, even better.

This is when I threw my linguine noodles into my boiling water.

Once the squash was beginning to cook (looking slightly translucent) I added some frozen green beans (fresh would be even beter if you have them) and some canned stewed tomatoes that I drained (I wasn't making tomato sauce) and diced coarsely. I also added about 1-2 tablespoons of butter for flavor (* if you use salted butter my previous statement on salt isn't exactly true but the important thing is to taste as you add salt and don't be afraid to add more if needed). If the mixture is looking too dry add more EVOO.

I tried to keep the mixture moving til the green beans are hot but still bright green, then turned off the heat till the noodles were done. When the noodles were done, I drained them and then tossed them with the veggies. I then served the linguine and veggies with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Pasta, herbs, garlic, EVOO and veggies always go well together and this dish, though simple, had some nice depth to it. It was also healthy and colorful, and it tasted good too.


**Notes: This dish is vegetarian. Yes, I sometimes cook vegetarian, usually when I forget to thaw any meat and am too lazy to defrost it. If you omitted the butter and Parmesan, it would also be vegan. If you want some formerly living protein (as I usually do), adding diced chicken before the squash would work (add the salt, pepper herbs and garlic with the chicken if you do) as would serving it with a nice piece of herb baked/broiled/poached/pan fried or seared/grilled fish.