Verdura Pasta (or a spring veg side dish)

I tried a spring gnocchi dish at this restaurant called Mercantile in Denver recently. It had so much flavor and the gnocchi were perfectly cooked, but they were so heavy I couldn’t eat much of it. So I attempted to recreate it, but made it lighter and of course put my twist on it! This has so much flavor, and is nice and light! Also, you can omit the pasta all together and just make the dish has a side accompaniment to any main protein like fish or chicken.

Makes 4 main pasta dishes

Ingredients:

1 box Campanile dried pasta (or you could use fusilli, penne)

Sauce:

1 cup fresh shelled peas

2 medium sized zucchini sliced really thin in a mandolin

1 leek sliced really thin in a mandolin

1 cup dry white wine- room temperature

2 T olive oil

Follow Your Heart vegan feta crumbles or regular feta cheese, or ricotta salata shaved)

Fresh herb gremolata:

1 bunch fresh Italian parsley

1 bunch fresh mint

1 bunch fresh basil

The juice of one lemon

2 T Olive Oil

Cook pasta per directions. The rest can be made while the pasta is cooking. Sauté the chopped leeks in 2 T olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Once cooked down about 5 minutes, before they are caramelized, add the zucchini slices. S&P lightly again and cook down breaking up the slices to make sure they are all getting the oil. Then add the wine, and cook down. While that's cooking, pulse the herbs, lemon juice and 2T of oil in the Cuisinart to make the gremolata and set aside. After about 15 minutes, add the peas and gremolata and stir. Finally, add the pasta to the sauce and taste. S&P as necessary, and cook 1-2 minutes more. Once dish is ready to plate, crumble feta over each serving.