Ever set out to do one thing in the kitchen and end up in a completely different stratosphere? If you're at all a regular reader, you know that I'm not much of a meal planner. More often, I get home, survey the fridge and go from there. When I try to plan and, for example, take ground turkey out of the freezer to use during the week, things never seem to go right. (hence the ground turkey sitting in my fridge that now needs to go in the garbage). So I wouldn't say that I planned tonight's dinner, but I'd had a vision all day.
We got these awesome, multi-colored cherry tomatoes in the farm share yesterday and all I could think about was a bright (in flavor and color!), simple pasta with fresh basil and some goat cheese.
I got home after 8pm, starving and tired. I started halving the tomatoes and let them sit with some grey sea salt, black pepper and a healthy pinch of red pepper flake. Then I remembered I'd harvested the heck out of the basil the other day and didn't have enough fresh to complete my vision. I looked at the squash and spinach that came in our box and decided to add even more color. Then I remembered the leftover eggplant from my pizza the other night and suddenly a rich, earthy pasta was born. I had plenty of oregano and rosemary, and just enough basil.
Often when I dramatically change course mid-prep things either end up spectacular or an epic disaster. This dish hit somewhere in the middle, but further from disaster, thankfully. After cooking up all the veggies and tossing in the pasta, (too much pasta, I might add, I would have preferred a higher veggie to pasta ratio) I drizzled the whole thing with white truffle oil and stirred in just a touch of goat cheese for creaminess.
All in all, it needs a little work and had I known where I'd end up, I would have skipped the red pepper, but for a fairly quick meal loaded with veggies, it's tough to complain.
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