Cucumber-and-tomato pasta trendy dish recalling earlier time

I couldn’t get it off my mind. All my life I had heard my mother and others of her generation speak of victory gardens, ration books, meatless meals, and shortages during the World War II years. My mother even worked as a ration-board clerk. As I grew up, stories of how the American cook had to stretch the food supply and be ingenious in the kitchen were legendary.

Just a few days back Hubby and I were on a vacation tour to Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. In the gift shop was the book, Cooking on the Home Front: Favorite Recipes of the World War II Years, by Hugh and Judy Gowan. Someone actually had put on paper a collection of those penny-pinching recipes that my mother and those who lived through those times mentioned. 

All during my trip through the USS Arizona Memorial, the USS Missouri, the Bowfin Submarine, and other stops at the Pearl Harbor site, I thought about the cookbook. Then, at the very end of the tour, I returned to the gift shop, purchased it, and brought it home.

Here’s the first of those recipes for me to prepare. The topping of well-seasoned, diced cucumbers, red onions, tomatoes, and fresh parsley was so delicious, no one thought about the absence of meat. This dish was good hot or cold. (We had it as leftovers the second day.) I remarked to Hubby that this kind of veggie pasta seemed more like a trendy dish that one would cook today than a meal that would have been common 70 years ago. 

For a moment I caught a glimpse of how the homemaker of my mother’s era felt she was part of the pull-together effort that the Pearl Harbor museum described. 

Cucumbers with Pasta

1 pound cucumbers

1/2 cup chopped red onions

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1/4 cup olive oil

1-1/2 pounds tomatoes

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon chopped basil

1 pound spaghetti

1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute) 

pepper

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

grated Parmesan cheese (I used shaved Parmesan)

Peel and seed cucumbers. Dice the flesh into 1/4-inch pieces; toss with 1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute), 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar, and a dash of pepper. Let set for 20 minutes; drain. Peel, seed, and dice tomatoes; combine with cucumbers, onions, garlic, herbs, and olive oil. Boil spaghetti in several quarts of water until done. Toss the hot spaghetti with the cucumber and tomatoes. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese. Makes 6 servings.

Invention truly was the mother of this fabulous winter-night veggie pasta dish

What a great idea for a winter night, I thought as I pulled together my ingredients for Vegetable and Cheese Pasta. I could just see it residing in my large pasta bowl of my blue spongeware dishes. I could imagine how beautiful it would look and how satisfying it would taste.

Ready to begin cooking, I surveyed the recipe, which I had in my files from a 2000 of Prevention magazine. No biggie, I thought to myself. I can whip this together in no time. I accomplished steps 1 and 2—boil pasta, drain, cook onion in oil.

Then I looked again. Where was the remainder of my recipe? I looked on the back of the magazine clipping. The back contained the directions for other recipes, but this one had managed to be continued on a page I didn't save. I dashed to the computer to Google it. Alas, Prevention didn't appear to keep recipes from a decade ago. I did an online search of veggie pasta recipes in general. Nothing seemed exactly what I had in mind. I would have to wing it.

Now, winging it is tough for those of my "J" personality type. As I've mentioned before, I have to have things outlined for me methodically, with no deviations allowed. Don't change directions on me, and for heaven's sakes, don't require me to improvise. But my ingredients already were assembled; I couldn't turn back. I simply would have to invent my own version of how this dish should be made.

Well, as you can see from the attached photo, bottom line was that things turned out just fine. To fill in the gaps I added the remaining steps that seemed to be provided. This dish was an easy thing, with no oven preparation required—mainly a heat-and-stir operation. So I "made do" by using my own ingenuity. And invention seemed to be part of this recipe anyway, since you could build your own dish by adding whatever veggies and whatever kind of cheese you desired or had on hand.

The result was a wonderful winter-evening meal—and to suit the constraints of No-Time December perfectly, it made enough for two or three meals for Hubby and me. That's at least one or maybe two more December nights I get a pass on cooking. Hooray for me! I overrode my "J-ness" and used my head to create a to-die-for entree that even could show up at a Christmas bring-a-dish with no shame whatsoever.

Vegetable and Cheese Pasta

12-ounces angel hair or linguine pasta

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, cut into small wedges

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup reduced-sodium vegetable broth

4 cups cooked vegetables (any combination, such as cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, carrots, beets, cabbage, rutabagas, parsnips)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

1/4 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

4 ounces cheese (such as Cheddar, feta, or Monterey Jack), crumbled

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain; reserving some of the liquid. Set aside. Meanwhile heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 4 minutes or until the onion is almost soft. Add the garlic and cook one more minute. Into the same skillet stir in the balsamic vinegar, vegetable broth, cooked vegetables, fresh oregano, parsley, salt, and pepper. Stir and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add pasta and stir, mixing thoroughly. If necessary for moisture add a few tablespoons of the reserved liquid from cooking the pasta. Add all the cheese, reserving the two tablespoons Parmesan for topping. Stir until cheese is melted. Pour mixture into large pasta bowl. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons of Parmesan on top. Serves 8.