Pasta Primavera with Arugula

Welcome to part 3 of my ongoing recipe series. Today we're making pasta sauce with whatever veggies and things in the fridge need to be used up. This sauce smells out of this world. I encourage you to reheat your leftovers in very public places, thus torturing everyone around you with the fact that they don't have any.

First, cook up some diced onion (at least half an onion) in a bit of butter until golden. Because the zucchini takes a little bit to fry up, I added it in before the garlic. Once the zucchini is looking done-ish, add some chopped garlic if you've got it, chopped salami and the carrots.

These just happen to be the veggies I had left over from the farmer's market. As I said, any ingredients are optional, feel free to use what you've got. If you have soft things like peppers, I'd put them in at the very very end so as not to overcook them. Added note: I find all this works better when you use a cast iron saucepan to cook in, rather than aluminum.

And then it's time for the magic - turn the heat down a bit and add a bigass dollop of cream cheese. mmmmmmm. This stuff will melt, but you will need to stir it with vigor in order to get the lumps out of the sauce. Add lots of milk at this stage too, to thin out the cheese and help with incorporating it into the sauce.

Get some pasta on the go. We got penne, as it's great for sucking up lots of sauce.

Some chopped garden chives to go in at the very last minute.

Because my patio garden is so small, I always end up with more seedlings than planting space. Often I'll just stick the extras in a bit of dirt in one of these black tubs you get seedling in for transplanting - and they'll often thrive in these cramped conditions. I harvested a few dozen little arugula leaves from these pots to garnish our pasta dish.

The peppery bite of arugula really cuts through the creamy sauce, and it's the perfect combination with Parmigiano-Reggiano (I'm a total parmesan snob). If you get your timing right and ganbatte (work real hard), you can often crank this dinner out in about 20 minutes.