Kousa “Pasta” and Peas

For the first dish of the day, I simply grated unpeeled, raw kousa squash that I got from Farmer Dave’s (you can substitute any summer/zucchini squash from Farmer Dave’s, Kelly’s Farm, of Flats Mentor Farm) using long strokes on the largest hole side of a box grater. You can prepare as much as you want, but I grated 3 or so cups into a big bowl.

Beforehand, Heather and I had shelled some peas from Farmer Dave’s; I  simmered about 1/2 – 2/3 cup of the shelled peas for three minutes in about an inch of water to bring out the sweetness (rather than add them raw) while I grated the kousa.

Next I added the simmered peas to the grated kousa and then portioned them for sampling, adding a small bit of alfredo sauce to garnish.  I had purchased the sauce at the grocery store the day before, forgetting that I could have used Deano’s Pasta’s wonderful sauces such as their new Onesto Cream Sauce, or, one of the tasty dips or sauces from Samira’s Hommade would have worked nicely as well.

I never did get a photo of this dish, but folks sure liked it!

Simple Kousa Saute

After heating about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan, I added about 3/4 cup of sliced/chopped green onion from Kelly’s Farm, using the white and some of the green stem, and cooked until a bit soft.

Then I added about 3-4  cups of 1 inch chunks of kousa, and tossed in the rest of the raw peas when I realized they had not all gotten cooked for the previous dish. See above.

After a good number of turns of the pepper mill into the mix, I chopped a tomato into just bigger than dice size and added them, then seasoned it all with about a two teaspoons dried basil (I remembered afterwards that fresh basil was available – next time!) and a few pinches of salt. Once the tomatoes were heated through, I turned off the heat and served. Yum!