Every summer, I can jars of tomato-based pasta sauces, freeze pestos, and preserve other vegetables so that they can quickly be tossed with pasta for a weeknight meal. But when the garden is producing heavily, I prefer to make easy pasta sauces from the fresh harvest, including the sauce I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

Grilling the vegetables makes this particular sauce so speedy yet taste like it spent hours developing its deep flavor. Sweet peppers, along with alliums like onions and garlic, caramelize and pick up smoky notes from the open flame.

The grilling process itself might seem like extra work, particularly if you need to set up and clean a gas grill or wait for charcoal to fully light before you start. I typically make this meal when I already have a mound of its vegetables to grill for freezing or canning or when we’re out on our sailboat and it’s as easy to pop a full gas canister onto a portable grill as the portable burner. When I’m grilling bowlfuls of vegetables but already have a dinner plan, I set aside ones for this pasta, or for the savory pancakes I’ll share next week, to make an ultrafast dinner a night or two later.

Learn more about quick sauces and get the complete recipe for Creamy Grilled Pepper, Onion, and Garlic Pasta in my column.

Make it, share it.
Tag @twiceastastyblog and #twiceastastyblog

Twice as Tasty

Excited about featuring more fresh-tasting vegetables in pasta? Here are just a few other easy pasta recipes on the blog. You can find more in the recipe index.

• Pasta That Pops
• Cheesy Wilted Arugula Penne
• Weeknight Pasta with Roasted Pumpkin and Parmesan

You can also learn more about making garden-fresh basil pesto and pasta from scratch in this blog post.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.