Pastacular!

I was sick all last week, so to celebrate my first home cooked meal as a once again healthy person, I wanted to make something super tasty. Winter in San Antonio may not be cruel, but it's still nice to have warm food. Also, I've been on a zucchini kick. So, I decided to cook some pasta and make something up as I went along. I was originally going to add some marinara sauce, but the bottle in the fridge dated back to November so I had to improvise. This is a recipe that can easily be adapted - throw in any vegetables you like, add some sauce.. anything is pastable! (last pun, I promise)

Ingredients:

1 cup of pasta (I used penne - I'm trying to get rid of this bag so I can move on to my whole wheat cavatappi!)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 zucchini, sliced but not peeled

red onion, chopped (use as much as you want - I have a small mandolin so I just sliced off 2 layers)

2 garlic cloves, minced (one needs to be small, one can be as big as you want depending on how much you like garlic)

1 tbsp butter

1/4 cup parmesan cheese (pecorino would have been amazing in this pasta, but sometimes you just have to settle for what's in the fridge)

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 slice bread (I used challah, hence the extreme yellow hue. such a great bread for dipping in soups as well!)

1) Cook the pasta in boiling water until it is almost completely cooked.

2) You can either add the zucchini in the boiling pot and cook it while the pasta finishes before draining, or you can drain the pasta, put it back in the bowl, and add the zucchini. I've done it both ways and liked it, it just depends on how soft you want your vegetables.

3) After the pasta is drained, return it to the pot and add the zucchini, red onion, 1 clove of garlic (not the small one), half of the butter, and the parmesan. Stir until the vegetables are reasonably cooked.

4) Mix remaining butter and the small clove of garlic in a small bowl and microwave 15 seconds. Stir together and pour over bread slice.

Enjoy! Side note - acai berry juice is delicious at any time of day.