farmers market pasta salad

hi friends, lovers, & people probably related to me —

125 — how is it august & i haven’t jumped in the lake yet? feels like a crime — otherwise my life has been incredibly full this summer & i am so grateful & happy & overwhelmed by it

pasta salad 4ever

i have not had as much pasta salad as i would like this summer (optimal consumption would be every three days but i could do biweekly if i had to) & that is v. sad. but ryan & i did eat this one for a week of lunches & it only got better as it went on. which is really all you want with a pasta salad & also with having to meal prep something.

ingredients
1 zucchini
1 bunch of scallions
1 pint of heirloom cherry tomatoes (preferably the multicolored ones)
1 ear corn
1 shallot
a few pepperoncini
a handful or two of snap peas
pesto (this can be store bought or homemade, mine was dill parsley pepita pesto that had been in the freezer from the last time all my herbs were wilting)
olive oil
lemon
salt & pepper
feta
half a box of acini di pepe or another tiny pasta shape
chicken (optional, i grilled some chicken for some protein in this but it could be a rotisserie, or not there at all)

steps

1st figure out the chicken situation if you’re doing that & also the pesto portion, if you don’t have any stashed in your freezer than maybe you’re doing summer wrong — regardless you do need pesto for this recipe so whether homemade, freshly made or picked out @ the grocery store that is going to be the base of the dressing for our pasta salad. combine a generous quarter + maybe a bit more of your pesto with some olive oil, salt, pepper & the juice of 1 lemon. taste and adjust as needed. set aside. the chicken is optional so if you don’t have or don’t want it’s all good

2nd chop up all your veggies, crumble all your cheese — i find this part really relaxing. put some salted water on to boil & cook your pasta, i will say you want a minute or so past al dente so that the pasta will absorb some of the delicious pesto dressing. once the pasta is done give it a quick rinse under some cold water & place into a large bowl, give it a lil drizzle of olive oil, then add all the veggies + chicken (if using ) + chees, combine with all of the pesto vinaigrette, a little salt & pepper & an extra bit of lemon. it’s going to taste good at this point but it’s going to taste great in a couple of hours once the flavors have the chance to meld.

3rd if you’re bringing this to a bbq, then you’re done, wrap up the bowl with some saran wrap & get over there. if you’re bringing this for a week of lunches then get out your lil tupperwares & fill them up. for me this made 8 medium sized deli containers (the perfect size).

particularly good things i consumed recently

summer activities — a quick water slide/ splash around @ the humboldt pool & a frozen naked & famous @ then hi lo w/ some of the maybe babies, the famdamnily reunion in south bend where we drank bobaritas & saw all the rasters & then some, sydney’s chicago bach —where there was pasta making, cowboy boots, fabulous outfits, tequila shots, a boat, seeing old friends & new, & plenty of croquettes for everyone. peaches from the logan square farmers mkt eaten directly over the sink, juice dripping down your wrist, a giant bowl of cut up watermelon in the fridge, my 1st gazpacho ever which turned out so well, house parties — with all the drinks & all the friends & all the tortilla chips, sydney’s bridal shower — so sweet, so lovely, bob’s birthday — where we all just watched the olympics & ate chicken parm & homemade ice cream cake

movies — it’s been a 90s(ish) thrillers summer: presumed innocent, speed, frality, twister. any recs?

tv — i haven’t gotten to the new season of the bear yet but i will i just need time to watch it all in like 2-3days, instead completely obsessed with the olympics of course, jeopardy, old law & order, veep (i had never seen!) a re-watch of 30 rock & this show a good girl’s guide to murder — it’s giving more wholesome british veronica mars

restaurants & siblings & friends — paulie gees, for the pizza cup winner w/meg meg & ryan, quickly followed up with slushies @ welcome back bc it was v. hot in there., dove’s, a remarkably good three beverage brunch as always, la scarola w/ billy & allison & ryan — a real classic & i ate almost all my ravioli. bar parisette w/ janel for hh & also for their soft serve, we had a wonderful time & want to go back yesterday, queen mary w/ ryan for their fantastic oyster & $9 martini hh — a perfect pregame for a 90s movie sunday afternoon & the cocktail sauce for the shrimp has a enough horseradish to clear your sinuses, barbaro w/ suzanna for the choriqueso! it had been wayyyy too long — do we always get mexican when we’re together yes or yes, rip cozymels., chengdu bistro w/ kaitlyn & ryan — where we ate all the dumplings & some spectacular cold spicy noodles & it’s byob. bungalow w/ molly & ryan — where everything we had was absolutely delicious, allez cafe w/ molly as a mid point for our hot girl walk — have you had a cream top from them? you should perfect summer treat

books — i’ve been doing this thing where i’ve mostly been reading cookbooks this summer as novels & of course all my holds for everything else were ready all @ once so I only read only two of them before they were due back, consuming instead: appetites, le sud, gjelina, & prune! lots of inspiration & lots of capital F, feelings

currently consuming

finishing up one of my library books, so that i can go pick up the next one, the farmers mkt, etc.

as always,
mk

p.s. i’m over here still slogging along in marathon training but had some good runs recently which was nice. if you can, please donate to support the chicago parks foundation here, it would be much appreciated & you might get a small homemade treat out of it once the race is done!

p.p.s. also apologies for the infrequent newsletters this summer, planning on two issues this month & then back to our regularly scheduled programming + a maybe a little more come fall :)