Fall Salad with a Sweet & Spicy Oil-Free Dressing

It's finally feeling like fall out there.  We've been eating a lot of squash at our house as of late. It's a real fall like veggie (or is it a fruit? it has seeds so I think it's a fruit).  As you know I usually just roast up some squash to keep on hand like I did in this post last week.  This time I incorporated butternut squash into a hearty salad with a sweet & spicy oil-free dressing that I will definitely be making again.

Zucchini Pasta e Fagioli

I've always been a fan of pasta e fagioli (often butchered by Italian-Americans like myself as something that sounds like pasta fazool).  In plain English it's pasta with beans. My mom used to make it with tomatoes, garlic & those short cut noodles or tiny elbow macaroni.

When I have a fridge full of produce I try to use it so I don't lose it. We had some zucchini in the fridge which lead me to this new (to me) take on pasta e fagioli, I call it zucchini pasta e fagioli. I left the dried pasta in it's box & shaved my zucchini into wide noodles instead (similar to here) - making it gluten-free pasta my friends (& Auntie Pat).  It's a very rustic dish which is code for it's not super pretty but it tastes really good, so serve it just after sunset when the light is that cool blue color & you're too hungry to care about how it looks.

Whipped Feta & Tomato Crostini

Tonight I am heading to wine club with some of my best girlfriends hosted by my friend Rose.  With wine you always need cheese, so I'll be bringing these whipped feta & tomato crostini. I prepared all of the components last night.  Chris taste-tested for me & confirmed that he "would order it again." So I packed everything up to-go.  I hope the girls like it.

Click through my recipe I adapted from Ina Garten's Tomato Crostini with Whipped Feta Recipe.