July 29 Dinner: pasta with herbs and squash

It is always so nice to have a dinner plan when you get home.  I went ahead and made the pasta with fresh herbs and sauteed patty pan squash.  This would have been a nice quick meal if I hadn’t also been in the middle of putting all the produce from the pick up away (that squash is still sitting on my table, oops).  Half way through making the pasta I realized that it is basically a fancified version of what I used to make in college (fresh herbs instead of dried).  My one note is that the recipe states it serves 3-4, which of course it might; but to counter my cheese-love I’m trying to get better about serving sizes and 1 pound of pasta says it makes 8 servings, so typically I weigh out the 2 or 4 ounces of pasta for our dinner.  I made the squash in the same pan I heated the garlic and oil for the pasta and cooked it very simply then just threw it on top the pasta.

I made this with whole wheat spaghetti which helps up the nutrition factor as well.  Not all whole wheat pasta is created equally though, my first few purchases turned me off of it for quite some time.  And I still crave the more refined version at times (like when making fettuccine alfredo).  I’ve been happy with most Trader Joe’s brand whole wheat pastas (though not big on it in the rotini form), BioNaturae and Bella Terra.

When I made this I used 4 oz of pasta for 2 servings, 2 handfuls of parsley and one green onion as well as 1 clove garlic.  Then I quartered and sliced 2 smallish pattypan squashes and threw a bit more olive oil in the pan and the squash, about half-way through I added 1 minced clove of garlic and a pinch of salt; I stirred occasionally and removed it from the heat when I liked the done-ness of the squash (it only takes a couple minutes).