Quick Summery Sautee

Just wanted to fire off a quick post about one of my favorite quick meals-- sauteeing a heap of vegetables, and throwing them over pasta. You don't need to spend time on a pasta sauce to make a nice, quick meal. Just grab some fresh vegetables, some olive oil, and within 10 minutes you'll be eating a hearty, summery dish that's both healthy and filling.

As it happens, I already had everything I needed in my pantry... and I wanted to get rid of it. I had a case of organic heirloom tomatoes from my local white person depot, Trader Joe's. I also had an onion and a bell pepper. Considering the only thing you pretty much ever need to make something taste amazing is onions, I had this on lock.

There is only one thing you need to know when sauteeing a medley of vegetables: cook them in order from longest cooking time, to shortest. (It's a good golden rule for sauteeing vegetables, but if you're going to make something like ratatouille, different orders need to be used, in order to blend the vegetables juices in the right order.)

After a cursory Google search, I found this handy list posted by TLC, the Schadenfreude Channel. No pictures of limbless hoarding midgets, but it does have a fairly thorough list of common household vegetables. The table doesn't have a column specifically for sauteeing, but it's fairly easy to compare the columns and items and extrapolate between the two.

In my case, I heated up a healthy wallop of olive oil to medium heat over the stove top then threw in my onions. Once they were starting to soften, I threw in the quartered tomatoes (whose juices really helped to soften everything else), followed by the sliced pepper. Season to taste. I threw in some fresh oregano and basil for an added kick. You don't want to overcook things, otherwise they'll turn into an unappetizing, brown gloop. But once it's soft, you're ready to spoon the mix over a bed of pasta, and top with parmesan. There should be plenty of liquid at the bottom of the saucepan, both from the tomato innards and the juices from the other veggies, which makes it a perfect pasta topper.

It's a fast, easy way to get rid of vegetables you've got lying around, and it's extremely filling. And it's good. Everybody wins.