Baked Ziti and Summer Veggies

This week we received more summer squash in our Farmhouse box. Since I had recently made my favorite summer squash chowder, I branched out to make something different. I had recently received my July Cooking Light in the mail, and I saw a recipe for Baked Ziti and Summer Veggies. This sounded perfect, and what could be bad about pasta and melty cheese? (Mmmmm....melty cheese).

I chopped up my zucchini, summer squash, onions and garlic. The recipe called for two garlic cloves, so of course I used five or six.

As the pasta was cooking, I sautéed the squash, zucchini and onion in a large skillet.

The recipe called for two cups of diced tomatoes, I only had a couple of fresh tomatoes that I was saving for sandwiches at lunch so I used canned tomato. I drained the juice and it worked just fine.

After the tomatoes and garlic were added in, I tossed the pasta, fresh basil and oregano and shredded mozzarella cheese.

I layered it all into a glass baking dish, and added the last of the cheese and some panko crumbs for a bit of a crispy finish. This wasn't in the recipe, but I would recommend it -- it really does add a nice toasty crunch.

Simply bake in a 400 degree oven until the top is browned and the dish is ready!

This makes about four servings which was plenty for dinner and some lunch leftovers. I added extra crushed red pepper at the end, because hubby and I love some extra spice!

This didn't take too long to put together -- maybe 30 minutes from start to finish.  I was worried it would feel heavy for a hot summer night, but the summer squash and zucchini work well. It would be easy to sub in different veggies, this dish has some pretty basic flavors: pasta, cheese, basil, tomato and oregano. Why fix what isn't broken!