Good vegetables for pasta

there are a lot of contexts in which you can just use a lot of vegetables interchangeably but mushrooms and tomatoes are no good for these purposes. mushrooms are functionally closer to meat than veg in a lot of dishes. I recall a prissy customer from my greengrocing days whose child went to get some mushrooms and he said "no, we don't want mushrooms, they're fungus", creasing his face in disgust. they are their own glorious kingdom, the first life forms on dry land, and they deserve respect/fear. vegetables are latecomers.

I don't have a lot of occasions for tomato sauce really. pasta & occasionally bruschetta. sometimes with pizza but I never feel good about home-cooked pizza. I use tomatoes in other sauces but they're not Tomato Sauce. the buttery slow-cooked richness is my platonic ideal which all variations are worked out in relation to. sometimes I like garlic, sometimes herbs, and v often wine.

the overcooked veg is amazing the way my brother cooks it but I have yet to get it to come out so well so don't really feel qualified to explain it. if we're talking pasta and veg it seems worthy of discussion & is the simplest way to go

congrats on working google out jim, you're an inspiration

this recipe is great:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/mar/22/linguine-with-courgettes-egg-and-parmesan-recipe-rachel-roddy-a-kitchen-in-rome

and, in fact, Rachel Roddy writes quite a lot about Roman Recipes for pasta and vegetables in her excellent book, Five Quarters. In that courgette recipe it's important to let the pasta cool more before you put it back in the pan to add the eggs (don't put heat under the pan).

or this:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jun/05/rachel-roddy-recipe-fusilli-pepper-olive-sauce

these are great too:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/29/spaghetti-with-courgette-mint-pecorino-recipe-rachel-roddy-a-kitchen-in-rome
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/13/pasta-with-mushrooms-and-herbs-recipe-rachel-roddy-a-kitchen-in-rome

RR's recipes are at most, slightly updated Roman or Sicilian recipes or stricly R or S recipes so saying no veg in my pasta is absurd.

par-steam some broccoli and sauté it with garlic and spinach

Xps i think using artichoke water to boil noodles would be a mistake. Gonna be somewhat bitter. Not a flav profile u want imo

This ain't a botany course. For culinary purposes mush are a veg. So are tomatoes. Broccoli is a flower from the same genus as kale cabbage kohlrabi. Eggplant is a berry. Botanically all fruit but pointless to not consider a veg.when cooking. Sry 4 rant

Anyway I often add a green veg ( broccoli cauli kale) to the boiling pasta for the last minute to blanch then add the lot to sauce in a pan. If it's frugula I put it in colander and it wilts when pasta drains.

Eating a sun dried tomato salad from my work canteen and just finished reading this article.

My mum makes a classic sun dried tomato pasta dish that just tastes of home, but I didn't ever realise that they had gone in and out of fashion quite so quickly.