Grilled Vegetable and Herb Pasta

My architectress friends, Sarah, Suzanne and Jennifer traveled from the big city to join me for dinner and a little tennis last month. Sarah brought a beautiful loaf of  Vollkorn bread from the Macrina bakery  and Suzanne and Jennifer brought a selection of their fabulous homemade jams. It actually didn’t rain that day, maybe one of the two days this July that didn’t, and we were able to eat outside. I tried some new recipes, zucchini frites with lemon and sage, grilled vegetable and herb pasta and summer tomato salad and one tried and true – white gazpacho, along with a strawberry cream cheese pie. The frites were okay, the pasta, tomato salad and pie were very good and of course, I forgot about the gazpacho in the fridge and forgot to serve it…..

I used a recipe from the Seattle Junior League’s Celebrate the Rain cookbook for this grilled vegetable and herb pasta. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…those Junior Leaguers can cook! I  did take the liberty of adding the parmesan cheese (and I think goat cheese would be fabulous, too). So, here is to old friends and new recipes.

Grilled Vegetable and Herb Pasta

Ingredients:

• 2 (2 pound) eggplants, stemmed and cut into 2 inch slices
• 2 portobello mushrooms, stemmed and gills scraped
• 3 walla walla sweets or red onion, cut into 1/2 inch slices
• 2 red peppers
• 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh mint, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 t. dried red pepper flakes (I use less as I don\’t like heat)
• 1/2 cup e.v. olive oil
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 pound farfalle or rotini pasta
• 3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

Cooking Directions:

1. Place the eggplant slices on a baking sheet and liberally sprinkle both sides with salt. Let sit for about 15 minutes and the wipe off the salt and dry.
2. Grill the eggplant, mushrooms and onion slices until just tender, 6-8 minutes, turning as needed. Cool a little and then coarsely chop.
3. Broil red peppers to char skin all around. Place in a paper or plastic bag for a few minutes. Take them out and the skin should peel off easily. Stem and seed them. Cut up coarsely.
4. Combine the eggplant, mushrooms, onions, peppers, basil, mint, garlic and red pepper flakes in a large bowl.
5. In a small bowl whisk together the oil and vinegar and pour over the vegetables. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let stand at least an hour.
6. Just before serving cook the pasta al dente.
7. Toss the pasta with the vegetable mixture and parmesan.