A Summer Recipe: Pasta all’Ortolano Umbro

Pasta dell’Ortolana Umbra – showcased with garden  vegetables –  would be literally translated “pasta of the Umbrian-vegetable-grower”  (a feminine gardener).  Since our friend Renato gave us all the vegetables from his garden, I’ll call my sauce, “Pasta all’Orotolano Umbro.”  Mille grazie, Renato for sharing your garden abundance.

I used Renato’s vegetables in this pasta dish for lunch.  Simple and quick to make, the summer goodness of the Umbria vegetable garden reigns. Have other vegetables than those below  in your garden? You might wish to experiment, adding them.  This is my version of the “vegetable gardener’s pasta”:

Pasta all’Ortolano Umbro

Ingredients (for four persons):

2 yellow or red bell peppers

2 eggplants

a medium-sized zucchini

a purple onion (sweeter than white)

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

Extra virgin olive oil, q. b. (“quanto basta” or “as much as you need”)

salt, q. b.

a chili pepper or two

8 – 10 leaves of fresh basil

penne or rigatoni pasta (1 lb serves 5 persons)

 

Cut eggplant into small chunks and sprinkle with salt to take out bitterness. Let sit about 20 minutes and then rinse in cold water:

Dice carrot, celery and onion:

Cut peppers into pieces and also the zucchini:

Cover saucepan with olive oil and heat but do let oil burn.  Add diced trio of celery, onions and carrot and simmer until golden: 

When the diced vegetables are golden, add eggplants and simmer about 5 minnutes:

Add chopped bell peppers and simmer a few more minutes:

Add zucchini and continue simmering for about 10 minutes on low heat. Put on pasta water to boil.  Add tomatoes, chopped basil and a chili pepper (or two), if desired and salt, q.b.:

Simmer until vegetables are soft but not mushy:  Add a splash of dry white wine to the vegetable sauce:

When wine evaporates, your pasta sauce is ready. 

Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente:

Add a bit of  cold water to stop the cooking as soon as the pasta is al dente:

Drain pasta, setting aside some of the brodo della pasta (hot pasta water) to add to sauce to make creamier if needed: 

Put some of the vegetable ortolano sauce into the pasta pan and then return the boiling pasta to the pan:

Add the remaining sauce to the pasta and put in serving dish.  Mix gently.  Top with additional sauce and serve.

Buon appetito (….e mille grazie, Renato)!