One-Pot Wonders: Linguine With Zucchini, Tomato, and Crab

With the farmers market filled with mountains of stellar produce, now is the perfect time to combine summer's best into one glorious vegetable-filled pasta. My quick and easy one-pot dish here is loaded with tender zucchini, blistered tomatoes, and aromatic fresh basil leaves. To add a decadent touch, I also tossed in delicate flakes of sweet blue crabmeat.

The prep work for the dish is minimal, since you only have to slice the onion, quarter the tomatoes, and cut the zucchini before beginning. Because herbs tend to brown or wilt quickly after being cut, I recommend cutting the basil immediately before serving.

To make the pasta, I start out by par-cooking it in salted boiling water until it's lost its rigidity but is still underdone. Then I drain it and toss it with oil to prevent sticking. Next, I wipe the pot dry and cook the tomatoes, zucchini, and onions together in olive oil until the zucchini and onions are tender and the tomatoes have burst their juice. I transfer the vegetables to a bowl on the side, then add the half-cooked pasta back to the pot, and finish cooking it with vegetable stock, which I add in bit-by-bit, almost like a risotto, until the pasta is al dente. I add the tomato-zucchini mixture back to the pot along with the crabmeat and cook it all together until saucy and warmed through.

When I made the version pictured here, I used a quinoa-corn linguine (which explains its vivid yellow color), because I find that it leaves me feeling less weighed down than wheat pasta does. It has a nice, dense bite and fresh flavor that I also find appealing. That said, the ingredients in the dish would pair amazingly well with regular linguine, if venturing into alternative pasta territory isn't your thing.