Farmers' Market Pasta

No doubt about it, farmers' markets are the place to be grocery shopping at this time of year. Here's a really easy, tasty vegetarian pasta dish that's super cheap if you pick up ripe ingredients from your local market. If you're growing your own, even better!

Roast pepper and tomato pasta

Nigel Slater to the rescue again with the inspiration for this juicy, sweet, moreish pasta. It's from his Simple Supper series, and hard to improve on... but you can roast any summer veges you like, and throw in your own flourishes. As long as you include a good dose of tomatoes, you'll have a great sauce for your pasta.

You'll need

Peppers: red, yellow, orange, any or all colours and shapes. Sliced lengthwise, and seeds scooped out, so they're like pepper boats.
Tomatoes: any colour, any shape; mix it up. But they must be ripe and juicy. Cut up the big ones, leave cherry tomatoes whole.
Garlic: whole cloves. Peel them by giving them a firm whack with a knife handle or other blunt instrument. The skins should pop loose, and the flesh crack a bit. If you totally smash them they'll fly all over the kitchen, so be firm but not reckless.
Red onions: or not. I like them, but not needed. Roughly chopped.
Olive oil, salt and pepper: as usual!
Fresh basil: if peppers and tomatoes are ripe, there's fresh basil about. Get a bunch.
Dried pasta: your choice, but "little ear" pasta, orcchiette to get all Italian about it, is Nigel's choice, and mine too.

How much of everything?
Roughly:

• Two or three peppers per person depending on their size (people and peppers).
• A big handful of tomatoes per person. 
• One clove of garlic per person. 
• Half an onion per person.
• An overflowing handful of pasta per person -- a double scoop, or two cupped hands for the blokes and the starving. 

The veges will shrink as they cook, so what might look like way too much, will likely end up just the perfect amount.

How to
Heat the oven to 180 degrees.
Pack the pepper boats into an oven-proof dish (glass,ceramic, or metal). A snug fit is good.
Fill the boats with tomatoes. It doesn't matter if a few go overboard.
Sprinkle the onions and garlic over the top.
Drizzle with olive oil. We're not looking for a drenching, just a thin trickle of oil shaken over and around each boat.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Sprinkle is one of my favourite words.

Oops, photo taken before salt and peppering.

Cover the dish loosely with foil. No need make it air tight.
Pop the dish in the oven, on the middle rack, and set your timer for half an hour.

It's ready when the boats have capsized, the tomatoes have gone sloppy, and their juice is flooding about. If you're using fresh basil, chop it up and toss it on top now. Let the dish sit and look pretty on the bench. It tastes richer if you eat it slightly cooled.

While the veges are roasting, get the pasta going (Skip this bit if you've got pasta boiling sorted.)

Fill your biggest pot two thirds with water. I cheat and use hot water from the tap so it boils faster... not sure how OK that is in professional circles, but it works for me.
Add about a tablespoon of salt. They (they being the TV food celebs) say to make the water as salty as the Mediterranean. I've never tasted the Mediterranean, so I wing it on that point. Just make the water good and salty.
Wait until the oven timer goes off, then...
Pour the pasta into the boiling Mediterranean. The water will stop boiling. Wait until it starts boiling again, and then set the timer for 11 minutes (or if your pasta packet recommends a different timing, use that.) When the timer goes off...
Fish a piece of pasta out of the pot and bite it. If it's to your liking, drain the pasta and get ready to serve. If it's still a bit dry and chalky inside, give it another minute and test again.

To serve

You can just mix everything up, swishing the drained pasta into the veges and getting it all covered with the juice/sauce. Or you can put the pasta in each plate, gently spoon over some juice/sauce, and balance a pepper boat with its tomato crew right on top. A basil leaf is a good show-off touch.

What are those specks of green in the pasta? Minced basil. Strictly not necessary for this meal, but I really wanted to use my newest kitchen gadget, so it could feature in this blog! Meet my beautiful Spong mincer...

... fresh from the 1970s, found by my lovely sister Julie in the Invercargill Hospice Shop, complete with original cutters and recipe book.

With a wonder such as this, I can mince basil, garlic, and lemon peel to make one last herby, zesty, punchy sprinkle for this dish. But honestly, it is absolutely Nigel Slater perfect without my mincing antics.