cooking · Dinner

Garden Harvest Pasta

A few weeks ago, as summer slipped away, I made this dish. With our warm fall we have been having, the produce kept coming – I finally picked my last tomatoes this week! While my sunflowers reached seed status, I’ve lost any battle I might have planned – the squirrel is happily munching them 😉

GardenHarvestPasta

Garden Harvest Pasta

Ingredients:

  • 16 ounces rigatoni pasta
  • 3 cups brocoli florets (about 8 ounces)
  • 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
  • 3 small garden grown or 1 large bell pepper, seeded and chopped (about 8 ounces)
  • ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes
  • ¼ cup lemon juice
  • 2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
  • ¼ cup raw sunflower seeds, finely ground
  • 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 1 crusty dinner roll

Directions:

Chop sun-dried tomatoes up, place in a bowl and cover with hot water, let soak for at least 10 minutes. Drain carefully.

Rip up dinner roll into small pieces, run through a mini food chopper until bread crumb size, mix crumbs with the Parmesan cheese and set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to to boil, cook pasta as directed. Reserve ½ cup of pasta cooking water, drain pasta.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium-high, add in ¼ cup water and broccoli florets. Cover and steam for 1 to 2 minutes. Take off lid, reduce heat to medium and cook off remaining water in skillet. Drizzle in 2 Tablespoons of the oil, and bell pepper. Cover and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes, lemon juice, maple syrup and remaining Tablespoon of oil. Cover and let cook over medium-low for a few more minutes. Liberally grind on black pepper, add reserved pasta cooking water and pasta, toss gently to coat. Toss in sunflower seeds and half of the bread crumb mixture.

Serve with remaining bread crumbs to sprinkle on top.

Serves 4 to 6.

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