Hello fine blog readers! Have you entered my Bob’s Red Mill giveaway yet? It’s ending today! Hop to it!

Dave and I are coming off one of the busiest weekends in memory. Which is saying something, considering that we both prefer to be busy and spend a lot of time doing projects. So here’s the rundown: On Sunday we went to yoga, we ran some errands, walked to the library and did some cooking. We headed downtown to Imperial for a lovely date night dinner. Not so crazy, right?

Well, on Sunday it was the opening day of the Montavilla Farmers Market (I’m on the board). We had an excellent opening day and the crowds and vendor stalls were slammed. Afterward Dave and I went through the semi-crazy process of renting a Home Depot pickup and driving it into the Pearl to pick up our new settee from West Elm, then returning it and putting the couch together. AND Dave rebuilt the picnic table in the backyard. This was all before 6:30ish, when we had the board of the farmers market over for a backyard BBQ. After the crazy amount of activity that led up to it, the weather was perfect, the beer and meats were delicious and the party was a lot of fun. Whew! Needless to say I did not get a blog post done that evening. We watched Cosmos and then almost fell asleep on our beautiful new couch.

Today though, after some much needed rest, I biked in to work again for the first time in a week. I am almost done with my gross hacking cough/cold. And when we got home, Dave and I had the nicest evening walk to the store to get ready for the week. We used some zucchini from the farmers market to make this light and lovely pasta recipe from the current issue of Bon Appetit (you can’t miss it: there’s a gorgeous cherry pie on the cover).

Not a lot of pastas are called “light,” but I mean it with this one. Having the sauce just be a little cheese and pasta water, and the mix-ins be thinly shredded made this a really nice texture and the large amounts of red pepper flakes helped it pack a punch. I’m so glad we tried it! The only thing we did differently was finish it with our best olive oil.

Here’s what you need:
1/2 lb. short pasta
olive oil
1 large leek, sliced into thin rounds (white and light green parts only)
3/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups grated raw zucchini
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan (NO green can!)

Cook the pasta until al dente according to the package directions. Save 3/4 cup of the pasta water, then drain the rest.

In a large skillet, heat about 1 tbsp. olive oil and then add the leek and red pepper flakes, seasoning liberally with salt and pepper. Cook until softened, 3-5 minutes. Add the grated zucchini next, tossing and cooking for another 5 minutes.

Toss in the pasta and the reserved pasta water, simmering until the sauce coats the pasta. This will take 1-2 minutes. Finally, toss in the Parmesan and serve. Finish with a drizzle of your most robust olive oil.

From the June 2014 issue of Bon Appetit. Go buy it, it’s a great issue with way more excellent recipes.