I have a couple basil plants that’ve been growing like crazy lately with all this hot, humid weather and rain. Last night I got my first chance to use some when I made pasta for dinner.
We had a tube of frozen turkey in the freezer, so I browned it with a little sweet onion, kosher salt, and chopped basil. Then I added a 28 oz. can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes and about a half cup of vermouth and set the whole thing to simmer while I put together some steamed brocolli and a salad of fresh lettuce and spinach from the CSA box we got last night. We also had some snap peas from the same box. Wow, are those things good. And Ava loved pulling the tiny peas out of the pods after Leah opened them up for her. Fun for the whole family.
We eat a fair amount of pasta at our house, for a couple reasons. Primarily, it’s fast to put together, and it seems we never have much time between getting home and getting Ava to bed. There are also a number of things you can do with pasta and sauce that keep it interesting if you have to have it often…not like cooking mac and cheese every night. There are a lot of really tasty organic and whole grain pastas out there anymore, and with a can of whole plum tomatoes or even some inexpensive diced tomatoes and a little reggiano, you can whip up a very savory meal on the cheap.
Lastly, Ava loves eating pasta. Last night was the first time I’ve seen her spin her little fork and get a good mouthful of spaghetti. She still needs some work on incorporating some meat and sauce into those mouthfuls, but that’s a pretty advanced utensil manipulation that some adults I know haven’t mastered yet. She’ll get there.
If this rain keeps up, I’m going to have tomatoes the size of bowling balls out in my garden in a couple weeks. And I should be seeing snap peas any time now, by the look of things.