Southwestern Summer Cheesy Pasta is a great way to incorporate all the beautiful summer veges with a little over the top decadent creamy cheese sauce. Yep! It’s good!
Well, I made a pasta recipe this week in lieu of grilling something because it WAS (optimal word here) supposed to rain all weekend! I seriously was looking forward to hanging out inside while Mother Nature was “supposed” to do her chore and water our gardens! Not only did all the weather people lie but so did AccuWeather. Accuweather even had the nerve to tell me that it was “raining” in my neighborhood all the while it was bright and sunny out! So be it, at least they got the cooler temperatures right. I actually turned off the air conditioner for the past two days! We really do need the rain though, so lets all hold hands and say a little prayer. LOL!
While I was pondering things to make indoors, I noticed that my stash of vegetables was piling up in my kitchen and I thought some sort of pasta primavera sort of dish. My Mom always made it for us as kids and we always loved it but I also know that I just couldn’t stop with the normal pasta primavera so I knocked it up like ten levels and came up with this Southwestern Summer Cheesy Pasta instead. All the beautiful vegetables that are so readily available right now seasoned with the Southwestern spices that we all love, BACON (well, just because) and a cheese sauce made with Mexican crema, jack cheese and of course the ever so flavorful Cholula sauce to bring it to well, just another level of awesomeness. I really love how this turned out and I love even more that my tennis center is next door and that I could share this mountain of pasta with one of my coaches! Good all around!
Enjoy!
PS… I included some neat pictures over the past couple of weeks…
- 1 pound pasta (your favorite kind)
- 1 pound bacon
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 medium zucchini, sliced into rings
- 1 medium yellow squash, sliced into rings
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 2 cups corn, cut from the cob or frozen
- 1-2 jalapeno peppers, diced small
- 1 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp corriander
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- Fresh Cilantro, chopped for garnish
- [br][b]For the cheese sauce[/b][br]
- 2 tbs butter
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1/4 cup onion, diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 container Mexican Crema (the table cream variety)
- 1/4 cup [url href=”http://www.cholula.com/flavors.html” target=”_blank”]Cholula[/url] sauce
- 1/4 cup white wine (I used chardonnay)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 cup Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded
- In a large saute pan, cook bacon until browned. Remove from pan and place on paper towels to drain. When cool enough, crumble the bacon. Set aside.
- Drain the bacon grease from pan but leave a tad for cooking the veges. Add olive oil. Add the onions, garlic, zucchini, squash, corn, red pepper, jalapenos, cumin, chili powder, coriander, salt and pepper and saute until the veges are tender. About 10 minutes. Add the bacon to the cooked veges. Set aside.
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
- In a medium sized saute pan, melt the butter and the olive oil. Add the onions and garlic and cook on medium heat until the onions become translucent. About 5 minutes.
- Add the wine, [url href=”http://www.cholula.com/flavors.html” target=”_blank”]Cholula[/url], salt and pepper and stir well. Turn heat to low and whisk in the Mexican crema and cheese. Heat until the cheese melts.
- Add the pasta and the cheese sauce to the vege mixture and combine well. Top with fresh cilantro and serve.
Canning round one! Pickled some cucumbers, carrots, beets and strawberry rhubarb jam! Everything but the strawberries were from my garden!
One of my favorite hikes to do with my folks is right behind their house! Can you imagine “this” being your backyard?
One of the original homestead cabins in Evergreen. I always love stumbling upon it when we are up hiking! So cool that it’s still standing.
First crop of beets pulled. For some reason, I must have planted a different variety. One fat round one and the rest skinny long ones!
Check out my cabbage plant. First off it’s enormous, but check out the colors of the veins! Pink and yellow.
I saw this Sunflower and had to take a picture! I’m not sure that I have ever seen an orange one before! So pretty!