Saturday was one of those days when I was all about checking things off my to-do list.
Finish schoolwork. Check. Vaccum. Check. Dust. Check. Do laundry. Check. Fold laundry. Check. Clean bathrooms. Check. Walk the pup. Check. Do an at-home workout. Check. Purchase a car dog seat cover so that my pooch doesn’t ruin my car. Check.
When Saturday evening rolled around, I decided that it was a nicely productive around-the-house day, and now it was time for some weekend fun. My hubby and I had plans to go to a luxury movie theater with another couple, but first, it was time to check this off my mental checklist: Make an awesome dinner using the farmer’s market pasta sitting in my cabinet.
The week before I had met a girlfriend for a smoothie date, and afterwards we walked around the Carlsbad Farmer’s Market.
I went home with some fun finds, including zucchini blossoms (more on those to come!), big delicious apples, yellow zucchini and said roasted garlic linguine pasta. I’m a sucker for some good pasta, and couldn’t resist nabbing a package to try – especially since I hadn’t come up with a good pasta recipe in awhile. The result was this bright and beautiful looking dish, if I do say so myself…. 😉
First, I started off by chopping a ripe heirloom tomato and yellow zucchini up.
Then I sautéed the veggies in some white cooking wine, sprinkling with my favorite seasoning ever, Jane’s Krazy Mixed Up Salt. Do you guys use this stuff? My mom turned me on to it awhile ago and it’s kind of awesome. At the same time, I boiled a pot of water to cook my roasted garlic pasta. 
Next up it was time for me to prepare my pesto. I had some wild arugula hanging out in my fridge, so I used that as my pesto base. Arugula, pine nuts, basil, fresh lemon juice, a garlic clove, grated Romano cheese, and olive oil went right into my food processor.
When everything was cooked and my sauce was smooth, it was time to throw it all together.
It was one delicious, veggie-packed, carbolicious dinner!
After devouring our pasta, we headed to a nearby luxury movie theater with full bellies to see Fury, a flick starring Brad Pitt taking place during World War II. The theater was pretty neat: reclining comfy seats, with food and drink service to your seat during the movie. The movie, though engaging and not at all a bad film, was super gruesome and, like all Nazi era movies, depressing. My usual analytical self contemplated what life would have been like had my Marine been a Marine back in those days. Whew, that’s a scary thought…. but, we had a fun night nevertheless!
Arugula Pesto Linguine with Tomato & Zucchini
Ingredients
- 8 oz linguine pasta or other long shaped pasta
- 1 large tomato heirloom or beefsteak
- 1 yellow zucchini green will work too!
- 2 cups wild arugula
- 1/4 cup pine nuts
- 2 TBSP fresh basil
- 3 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
- 1 TSP fresh lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/4 cup grated Romano cheese plus more for sprinkling
- 2 TBSP white cooking wine
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Chop the tomato and zucchini into bite sized pieces. Heat cooking wine in a large sauté pan. Add the veggies, season with salt and pepper to taste, and cook until tender (around 7 minutes).
- Meanwhile, boil a pot of water to cook the pasta in. Add the linguine and cook as directed.
- While the veggies and pasta are cooking, it's time to prepare the pesto: first quarter the garlic clove and chop the basil. Next combine the arugula, pine nuts, basil, lemon juice, garlic, grated Romano cheese, and olive oil into a food processor. Process until smooth. (You may need to scrape down the sides once and pulse again.)
- When pasta is cooked al dente, drain and return to pot. Add sautéed veggies, then spoon the pesto into the pot. Mix together well, pour into a serving dish, and serve immediately with more Romano cheese to sprinkle on top.
Nutrition
Questions: Have you ever been to a luxury movie theater? What was the last awesome pasta dish you ate? Do you consider yourself an analytical person?
Omg! Your pasta looks amazing!!! I so want this! The veggies from the farmer’s market look so appetizing!
Don’t you just feel great when you can check a whole bunch of things off your to do list?
Omg that looks amaazing.. I haven’t had pasta in so long. Props to you for making your own pesto! =) Don’t farmers market ingredients make everything taste better?!
This dish looks good – I love pesto instead of traditional pasta sauce!!
I haven’t been to one of the luxury theaters but I’m sure I would love it!!!
Yum!! so healthy and fresh! Double win! …and smoothies are the best aren’t they?? …and a fresh farmers market stroll on a chilly afternoon! How lovely! 🙂
Man, that looks delicious! I’ve never heard of the krazy salt but I’ll have to keep an eye out for it. And I’m excited to see what you make with those zucchini blossoms!
PINNING NOW! This has my name written all over it! I was just saying how I need to start focusing on incorporating more veggies into my diet. Plus pesto is godly 😉
YAY! Hope that you try it, Lauren!
I love the farmer’s market. You juice looks yummy!
I watched Fury before leaving London. Like you, I think it is a good movie but not cheerful, let’s say. Your pasta dish looks great, you don’t know how much I’d love to eat a dish like this right now!
Yeah exactly. All my hubby watches is historical stuff like that, and while informative, I’m always like, “This is depressing!”
Hope that you’ve found some sort of good pasta dish in Thailand 🙂