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You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Friday Recipe Exchange: Pasta w/Marinated Vegetable and Bruschetta

Friday Recipe Exchange: Pasta w/Marinated Vegetable and Bruschetta

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JeffreyW has his own take on Bruschetta here and here

I’m not ready to jump into fall just yet. My garden is slowing down, but my tomatoes are still flourishing. I’ve been turning my bounty into frozen packets of fire-roasted tomatoes to be used for soups and sauces when the weather cools a bit. As I put this together on Thursday, the temp outside was 80 degrees at 9 pm. Summer isn’t heading to the exits anytime soon.

Every Thursday in the What’s 4 Dinner Solutions Cookbook, there is a travelogue of sorts. Menus with flavors from all over the world. In the summer, it’s various regions of the states and the fresh produce available.  Tonight, it’s a New England Farmers’ Market kinda night. 

On the board:

MENU
Pasta w/ Marinated Vegetables (recipe below)
Tomato & Olive Oil Bruschetta (recipe here)
Grapes

Pasta w/Marinated Vegetables

  • 10 oz Rotini pasta
  • 1 tray ice cubes
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 small eggplant, peeled & chopped
  • 4 mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 zucchini, sliced
  • 10 to12 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
  • 6 oz jar marinated artichoke hearts
  • 1 red onion, sliced in rings
  • 2 oz black olives
  • 8 oz Italian or Caesar dressing (more if needed)
  • 2 oz grated parmesan

saucepan
skillet
bowl
serving bowl

In saucepan, cook pasta according to package directions, drain, rinse in cold water and toss with ice cubes. Set aside and let cubes melt.

While pasta is cooking, in skillet, heat oil and sauté eggplant, mushrooms and zucchini.

Remove and cool in the refrigerator while preparing remaining vegetables.

In bowl, toss remaining vegetables with dressing.

Remove any un-melted ice cubes from pasta, and toss with all vegetables once they are cold.

Add cheese, more dressing if needed, and serve.

As always, omit or substitute anything you don’t like. This one is especially easy to adapt to your flavor palate.

====================

What’s on your menu this weekend? Earlier this week Alain posted his great instructions for roasting chiles and he mentioned having a vacuum sealer. That’s on my wishlist – anyone have any suggestions?

Okay, hit the comments with your recipe shares!

 

Reader Interactions

58Comments

  5. 5.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    No cooking tonight. I have kittens ensconced in the back bedroom. They have eaten and are now exploring their new digs.

  6. 6.

    Barbara

    I like the combination of vegetables but I have never learned to like cold pasta. I might adapt this using a technique I read about, where you cook the pasta in chicken broth that gets very concentrated as the pasta absorbs the broth.

  13. 13.

    BeautifulPlumage

    I love reading these recipes and looking at the pictures, but I’m avoiding all nightshades due to their inflammation activation (I don’t have RA but it runs in my family, and I find I have much less nasal congestion when I don’t eat tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, potatoes, and tomatillos).

    Any chance for some recipes that don’t include nightshades? I know I’m asking for a lot, but I’ll take any suggestions. Also, has anyone pickled green beans and other veggies? I don’t do capsaicin well (plus – pepper family) but horseradish and wasabi are great. I’m also watching starches, so not a lot of white flour, etc.

    Thanks in advance!

  17. 17.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @SiubhanDuinne: They haven’t let me get photos yet, but they’re also not really hiding. They’ve already discovered that they have the window overlooking the bird feeders. Hoping to get the webcam set up tomorrow morning.

  22. 22.

    Yarrow

    That sounds delicious. I don’t think I’ve heard of leaving the pasta in ice. Is that in a colander so the water drains off?

  27. 27.

    Yarrow

    What’s on your menu this weekend?

    Anything that doesn’t heat up the house. I think I’d be okay with a bowl of cereal. It’s so freaking hot.

  28. 28.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @Baud: LOL, no I just joke about it because the comments sometimes go off the rails…my replies are always with tongue firmly planted in cheek, unless you’re going after another commenter, then I tend to get serious.

  29. 29.

    Aleta

    Fortunate to get some very fresh haddock. Roughing it right now, but (thanks to NotMax) the instant pot has improved meals at the Canopener Cafe n’ Cabin. Leftover brown rice in the pot with the haddock on top and Penzy’s fajita spice mix on the fish. Steamed for 3 minutes. Wow. Thanks again NotMax.

    Also some chard. Heavy rain and high wind supposed to start here around midnight. My friend left me permission to raid her garden after she left (basically lettuce, chard and tomatoes), so we went today before it gets thrashed.

  35. 35.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @BeautifulPlumage: My suggestion is to substitute other vegetables for the tomatoes – anything you like will work in this recipe – green beans, peas, summer squash, mushrooms. And zucchini or spaghetti squash noodles are a great substitute for flour pasta (if you can do brown rice, there are some terrific brown rice pastas out there).

    And sweet potatoes work great instead of white potatoes in many things.

    If you remind me when I post recipes each week, I’ll gladly offer ideas for adapting the recipes when I can.

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    Finally – finally – figured out a spot out of sight to store the monstrously gigantic new air fryer (which have not used yet, other than to make sure it works and to prep and season the basket per the instruction manual). Took hours of fadiddling* with boxes and other stuff to get to this point after my original plan to use the place where the largest stew pot resides fell through because the air fryer turned out to be too big to fit there.

    Planning to inaugurate it next week by making a big batch of onion rings after I pick up the necessary ingredients not already in stock during the monthly grocery run to town.

    French fries, onion rings and fried chicken will likely end up being the most frequent uses. Maybe something along the lines of garlic encrusted shrimp as a special treat. Don’t much care for bacon but if I need it for a dish can now make it relatively mess free, I guess. Those I can dope out how to prepare all on my lonesome. That being said, anyone have link(s) to any recommended air fryer recipe site(s)? I know someone who swears by using one to cook steak but remain leery about that. Highly unlikely shall ever use the cake pan which came with it, although never say never.

    *technical term.     :)

  37. 37.

    Sab

    @BeautifulPlumage: Aren’t food intolerances weird? I have been breaking out with poison ivy rash all summer from yard work. Then I stopped eating cashews, and my poison ivy rash calmed down a lot even though I am out in the yard doing the same things that got me the rash in the first place.

  38. 38.

    Roger Moore

    Earlier this week Alain posted his great instructions for roasting chiles and he mentioned having a vacuum sealer. That’s on my wishlist – anyone have any suggestions?

    I think most of the clamp-type sealers are pretty similar. They’re convenient if you seal occasionally, but the bags are really expensive. By the time you’ve sealed a couple hundred bags, you’ve spent more on bags than on the sealer. They also can’t seal liquids well, because the vacuum sucks the liquid out of the bag. I used one for a few years and finally decided to break down and get a serious chamber sealer. It’s big, heavy, and expensive, but it can seal liquids, and it uses much cheaper bags than the clamp type. If you use your sealer enough that you don’t like the cost of the bags, you should consider getting a chamber sealer.

  39. 39.

    NotMax

    @Aleta

    Yay you! Did you originally cook the brown rice in the Instant Pot?

    Like it for making rice.Though sometimes (and why on Day X and not on Day Y have never been able to suss out) had a small problem with some of the rice at the bottom burning. Also (rarely) happened with pasta. Still easy to clean the stainless steel insert which comes with the IP when that happens, but once I got and switched to using the non-stick insert pot instead of the stainless steel one for those foods that occasional burning has totally been remedied.

  40. 40.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @TaMara (HFG): Thanks! I will keep an eye out. Those are good suggestions for the current harvest season.

    @Sab: Yes! I try to make it clear that it’s avoidance. I also used to joke that I was allergic to eating because my nose would start running about 5-10 minutes after finishing a meal.

    And cashews with poison ivy…who knew!

  43. 43.

    Aleta

    Any suggestions about diet or a direction for helpful recipes/eating or any other input would be very welcome:

    My partner was told this week that he has diabetes 2, based on a diabetes 2 reading on an A1C test, at the lowest number but higher than the prediabetes level. (He doesn’t recall that he had a previous A1C test, only the fasting glucose ones which were always OK.)

    The PA sent him off with a prescription for a medication and no other information, just ‘come back in 3 months for another test.’ He looked the medication up and saw that is counter-indicated for kidney disease, which he’s had for three years.

    (Medical system is not good here. I’m mad because he had other signs of possible diabetes, but they didn’t recommend this test earlier. He and I didn’t even know about another test — just thought the glucose test meant all was OK.)

    He decided on his own to not take the med. until he could see his kidney doctor, and decided that instead he would stop eating all his usual obvious sugar (pastries and ice cream and chocolate bars) for 3 months to see if his level would improve. I’m concerned about damage if he waits but hoping that his plan + more greens, fish, nuts might help or at least help with the change to no sugar-added foods. He’s had a rough year with a lot of stress and also a forced retirement before he planned to.

    So I don’t know much about diabetes, and he was not given any consult, though I’m trying to convince him to look further for a consult. (He doesn’t communicate with doctors well, and never demands more than offered.)

  44. 44.

    Aleta

    @NotMax: “originally cook the brown rice in the Instant Pot?” Yes. It’s always done br rice so well I don’t think we’ve used anything else the whole year. So far no sticking or burning. We use short grain organic — might come from Lundberg in CA. Could the age of or water content in the rice make a difference? Steamed fish in the In. pot was a revelation …. and I’ve had a lotta fan mail from some flounder fish.

  45. 45.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @Aleta: My dad controlled his type 2 for years with diet. He added oatmeal for breakfast. Ate almonds for snacks. Cut way back on pastas (he’s Italian, it was a big deal) and breads. Added apples and bananas, and cut out most sweets, though the occasional ice cream.

    He added full fat half and half to his coffee with stevia.

    Dropped about 30 lbs (pasta, it’ll get you every time)

    It was only years later, after a very stressful two years with family stuff, when he fell off of all that, then he had to move to the meds.

  52. 52.

    Miss Bianca

    I did get a sack of roasted mild greens at our local grocery store tonight. I peeled one and put it with some baby swiss onto my burger and voila, chili cheeseburger!

  55. 55.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @Aleta:

    My A1c was not great several years ago, and diet is important even with medication. Look up the glycemic index of foods, in addition to carbohydrate levels. Increased fiber is usually important: whole fruit versus juices, whole grains (like the oatmeal suggested), and moderate but consistent activity. Avoid starchy foods, and recognize that squashes, some root veggies, and most fruit may be utilized as sugar depending on your metabolism.

    ETA: the royal “your metabolism” meaning any human

  56. 56.

    TomatoQueen

    @Aleta: I have type 2 and for my sins also spent about a year working in the American Diabetes Association call center, fielding queries. As it’s unlikely the rules have changed much, let me offer some things from that job (2005-06 era): A1c is an almost-magic test that tells you and your doc how your body has been for the past 3 to 4 months, and is The Test to be concerned about. Other measurements are snapshots, A1c is long term, and it’s long term glucose control that helps to avoid complications, and it’s the complications that make life miserable. For people newly diagnosed, a diabetes educator can be more helpful than a doc, if there’s one in your area–often they are associated with hospitals. Two diet plans out there among many have been useful in managing blood sugar, South Beach and DASH, the latter of which is on the net and is cardiac-oriented and docs like it. Exercise, at least 30 minutes a day, can do wonders to get the numbers down. Also, drinking water all the time, no sodas, helps to wash the glucose out of the bloodstream and into the cells where it’s wanted. Meds: I assume the medication offered is metformin (glucophage), as it is the gold-standard for type 2, but of course there are plenty of others around because of side-effects, allergies, and the one issue you mentioned, it dings the kidneys. I’ve been on the extended-release form of it for years and find that I have anemia (sigh) so take an iron pill too. The main takeaway I have is that every person who has this condition is affected individually, so living with it successfully means paying attention to what your body does. I have found keeping a regular routine of meal times and sleep times more helpful than anything. And the website diabetes.org/ is still full of good stuff.

  57. 57.

    Aleta

    @ Tamara 🌶 + BeautifulPlumage 🦜 + TomatoQueen 🍅
    Thank you, every bit of this is extremely helpful ! 🍓 🥑 🍌

  58. 58.

    Sab

    I finally got around to making this. Mine looks like a vegetable glop. But it is delicious, and also has interesting texture. A definite keeper recipe.

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