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Pasta, Meet Serrano

By no means do I have an iron stomach, but I can tolerate and definitely enjoy a little heat from time to time. I came up with this dish this morning, in part because I needed to use the remaining veggies from last week's box and also because I was in the mood to make something mildly spicy.

Whole grain pasta always feels more virtuous than normal pasta, although I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes, health-wise. Taste-wise, however, it's a big difference. It's got a nutty flavor that goes nicely with summer vegetables. The heat comes from a small amount of finely chopped serrano pepper - again, another ingredient I had sitting in the refrigerator that needed to be used (see, last week's salsa), but it integrates well with the other vegetables. Finally, some good parmesean ties it all together. Cheese is a great uniter.



Total time to cook: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
1 medium zucchini, shredded (I used the wider side of my box grater)
1 ear of corn's worth of kernels, comes out to about 1.5-2 cups
1 serrano pepper, finely chopped (I removed the seeds, you can keep them for a spicier dish)
3/4 lb whole grain pasta (I used penne)
2 tbsp olive oil
Pinch of kosher salt
1/2-3/4 cup shredded parmesean cheese

Steps:
- Cook the pasta as you're going through the rest of the steps (if it finishes early, strain and set aside in a medium bowl.)
- In a medium pan, heat half of the olive oil over medium heat.
- Add the zucchini, corn and pepper to the olive oil.
- Add a pinch of kosher salt.
- Stir vegetables regularly, add the rest of the olive oil after about three minutes.
- Continue to cook the vegetables until the corn is done, another three to five minutes.
- Mix vegetables in with the pasta.
- Incorporate the parmesean a tablespoon or so at a time, making sure it's all mixed together.
- Sprinkle more parmesean on top if you like before serving.
- You can serve it hot or cold.

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