You know it’s summer in New Jersey when the hobby farmers start pawning off their veggies! My parents have kept a garden my whole life, and come early July, every meal begins to include some iteration of zucchini, squash or swiss chard. Sometimes pickled. Sometimes roasted. Often just steamed with salt, pepper and a sprinkle of parmesan.

Whether you want (or need) more, vegetables are inevitably showing up on your doorstep, so you better have a few tricks up your sleeve. That’s what lead me to create this recipe, that John affectionately refers to as my “Summer Sauce”.

Truth be told, there’s no real sauce element in the way of tomatoes (not till the end of July, at least), but all the garden’s bounty adds amazing flavor, texture and color which creates a mixture that can be eaten by itself, or added to any starch for a full meal.

The key to this recipe is the ribbon technique used to prepare the zucchini and squash. Think zoodle, but with a vegetable peeler. The ribboned veggies are quick to cook and keep their shape.

In the below recipe, we’ve added rigatoni and sour cream for a creamy finish!

SUMMER SAUCE

1/2 red onion chopped

1/2 cup sweet peppers

2 cloves garlic minced

Swiss chard (handful, stems removed, chopped)

1/2 lb Italian sausage (hot/sweet/mix)

1 zucchini (ribboned)

1 squash (ribboned)

Italian seasoning, chives, salt, pepper

optional - pasta, sour cream and butter

INSTRUCTIONS

Start by heating olive oil in a skillet, and begin to brown the garlic cloves, peppers and onion; add sausage and Italian seaononing to cook.
Then add the ribboned vegetables and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add the swiss chard on top and gently fold into the mixture to lightly steam the greens. Season with salt and pepper.

STARCH

In a separate pot, cook 1/2 lb of pasta (substitute starch) to the package directions; al dente is best. Loosely drain the pasta, reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water.
Return pasta to pot, add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1/4 cup of sour cream. Stir to coat pasta, add chives.
Add all veggie sauce mixture to pasta pot and fold together to incorporate.