Hotter than July!

Insalata di Pasta con Verdure alla Griglia

Pasta Salad with Grilled Vegetables

Today was a hot day... it was a SCORCHING HOT day- and by the time I got home from work I felt like I had run a marathon... in a sauna! Ugh! It is only August the 2nd, but already it is much hotter than July and even though Stevie Wonder claimed everyone was feeling pretty in his song... in this heat- everyone if feeling kinda rough from the looks of them!

It is seriously too hot to be stood in front of a stove cooking for too long, so my quick and easy dishes should be the perfect thing to quickly whip-up after a hard days work... dishes like this one here! How does a healthy pasta salad sound to you? Without the heavy mayonnaise or tons of dressing to make it stodgy and heavy? Yeah- I though you might like that!

To make this dish, I began by boiling up a pan of water and cooking the pasta as usual, with plenty of salt for around 8-9 minutes, for pasta of this kind of shape. Which gave me time to get busy with the vegetables.

I had a half of an eggplant, half a zucchini, 2 Spring onions and 1 large tomato... plenty to make a great meal with!  And at this point, I may as well make my confession and own up to having not prepared the vegetables on a real, outdoor grill, but rather on a grill skillet indoors... oh well!

I started off "grilling" the eggplant on a dry pan at first, for 2-3 minutes, until it began to brown and then added a little olive oil. At this point I also added a little crushed garlic, the Spring onion and zucchini, a hint of nutmeg and a little dried-oregano. I continued browning the vegetables off and suddenly realized the pasta had been boiling away for 6 minutes!

Next, I cut 2 nice thick slices of "Cedra" lemon peel and added them to the saucepan, to blanche for the remaining minute or 2 of cooking time. I also cut a little criss-cross cut into the end of my tomato, in order to blanche and peel it and popped that into the saucepan too!

As soon as the pasta was done, I drained it, added a little olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, a sprinkle of finely chopped parsley and set it to one side to cool down- after all- this was going to be salad!

Back to the vegetables... I added a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper and tossed them until they became lightly caramelized, then set them to one side too. Next, in went the tomato- which I had peeled, removed the seeds of and also salted and peppered. After 2-3 minutes at a high temperature, I added a little olive oil too, as well as a tiny hint of honey and lemon juice... and then out came the tomatoes too!

I served the vegetables up mixed with the pasta, setting the tomatoes on top and adding a fine dice of the now cool and mild Cedra lemon peel- this added a great Summery flavor and went wonderfully with all of the other ingredients too! Because of the citrus flavors, I decided not to add cheese to this dish, but added a sprinkle of the cedra peel which I first cut into a fine dice- delicious! I seasoned with olive oil, coarsely ground black pepper, a splash of Tabasco and a little lemon juice.

So that was just 10-15 minutes in the kitchen at the most! And thankfully, the rest of the evening to relax and enjoy! So I hope all of you do too!