Contrary to the popular holiday song, I think that August is the most wonderful time of the year. It’s the month when you can walk into the garden after work and ask, “What’s for dinner?”
Tonight the garden answers “Green beans, Zephyr squash, salad, tomatoes and basil.” “Perfect!” I reply. “Those will taste great with the scallops I bought.”
I decided to make a version of what my husband and I have long called “summertime spaghetti” only instead of pasta I used the summer squash. Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
Summer squash, cut into sticks
Garden ripe tomatoes, chopped
Freshly picked basil, cut into ribbons
Garlic, chopped
Salt, pepper, olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese
Put the tomatoes and basil into a bowl with some olive oil. Heat up some olive oil in a sauté pan and when it’s hot add the chopped garlic. After a few seconds add the sticks of summer squash.
Toss the squash in the hot pan until it’s cooked but still crunchy…about five minutes for the Zephyr squash.
Put the cooked squash into the bowl with the raw tomatoes and basil and toss. Add more olive oil, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese to taste. Serve immediately.
This is a quickly made dish. You could have it prepared in less than a half hour if it's served as your entree. I prepared some scallops in mustard sauce too, so the entire dinner probably took about 45 minutes to prepare.
The squash has been sliced into sticks, the garlic chopped and the tomatoes are mixed with the ribbons of basil and olive oil.
I just steamed the beans for a couple of minutes. I like them unadorned and my husband puts them on top of the salad.
