Farm-Stand Pasta salad

It’s Farmer’s Market Pasta salad. It’s also a pasta bowl meal. It’s also a casserole. Depends how you serve it up.

This is definitely a bowl meal.......



I have to admit this dish had me skeptical about a promising end result. Usually Martha Stewart’s recipes have turned out very well for me but this one didn’t look like it would work.

I admit it – I was wrong. As I was cooking I told Doug, “I don’t think this one is going to work, I just don’t see how it will come out well,” because the direction seemed….just wrong.

And I was worried because I didn’t have anything else in the house, or out of the freezer, that could be prepared quickly….just in case. I saw another evening of running off to Waffle House for the All-Star breakfast! (Yes, we are rural enough that it’s WH fare for us if we don’t want to drive more than a 10 minutes)

So……you start by boiling the pasta of your choice. Something small like Gemelli or shell pasta. Just before you drain the pasta you scoop out 1 cup of that starchy pasta water. Put aside. Drain the pasta and put that aside too.

In another pan brown the chopped onions, garlic, green bell pepper and green onions in a tablespoon of olive oil.
Cut cherry tomatoes in half and toss those into the pan after the onion mixture has softened. They will get ooey and release the juices. Toss in shredded zucchini strips.

Martha says to use a box shredded, grating the zucchini on the side with the large holes. I said to heck with that and used the food processor. Same result just quicker.

Add corn and pasta and some of that pasta water you set aside. Salt and pepper and any other ingredient you think will enhance per your personal taste.

As I was adding the pasta water and it thickened up I realized my misgivings about the end result were unfounded. I should have trusted The Martha.

We had enough leftover that it was a main meal the first night, a pasta salad side dish the next and just enough to go along for lunch at work the next day. It stores well too. We didn’t eat it three days in a row but it stayed very fresh in a sealed container.

I tossed some in a casserole dish and added more cheese.



Definitely having this one again! You can vary the ingredients and add more pepper if you are fan or double the tomatoes (which I will do next time) or add steamed broccoli. I guess that’s why it’s called Farmer’s Market Pasta.

linking up to Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for her Souper Sunday!