Rainbow Pasta, aka Pasta Primavera

First, I wanted to let you know that I wrote an article for Daring Bakers on growing your own herbs. You can check it out by clicking here. I was so excited to write for this group. Besides being a great group of people with lots of fun challenges, they now have new features to their site, including articles.

My inspiration for this lovely dish came from blog hunting. I saw some Pasta Primavera on HoneyB's site The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch. It was one of those things where I knew I had to make it right away. So I threw together some fresh and frozen vegetables to create a Pasta Primavera. I usually have whole grain pasta but this time I figured with the dish being mostly vegetables it would be okay to have some white pasta. A girls gotta splurge once in a while, right?

Pasta Primavera

1 pound of asparagus
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1/2 pound pasta ( I used 2 cups cooked to add to the dish)
3/4 cup peas
1 carrot, matchstick sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
s and p to taste
freshly grated peccorino romano or something similar

Cook pasta and set aside. While pasta is cooking chop up all your vegetables. In a large frying pan, cook asparagus in some water. Cover and cook to al dente. Remove asparagus and set aside. Drain water. Dry pan with a paper towel. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and saute peppers and carrots until tender. Add garlic cook one minute more. Stir in peas and pasta and reserved asparagus. Add 1 more tablespoon of olive oil. Serve in large bowl with freshly grated cheese.