Pappardelle Pasta with Garden Vegetables and Garlic Scape Pesto

Oh, summer, how I love you. Longer days, warmer nights, lazy afternoons spent sipping iced coffee, days at the beach, amazingly fresh vegetables from my garden and the farmers market. This Friday, I came home from my bed at the community garden with several yellow squash and a great big handful of snap peas, and on Saturday I stopped by the farmers market and picked up some beautiful garlic scapes from Hunts Brook Farm, my favorite local farm - I get most of my vegetable seedlings from them each year (including the yellow squash and peas this year) and they have the most amazing produce.

When I got home I immediately went to work making garlic scape pesto, but was a little less sure on what to  make with my freshly picked vegetables. As is often the case with squash and zucchini, my plants are prolific producers, and even this early on in the season I am struggling to come up with new ways to use them all. I made a couple jars of squash pickles (which are AMAZING, by the way. I highly recommend if you have a dearth of squash or zucchini), but still had a few left over, so I incorporated them into a quick and simple pasta dish for dinner tonight, working in the freshly made garlic scape pesto as well.

PAPPARDELLE WITH GARDEN VEGETABLES AND GARLIC SCAPE PESTO
1 small onion, halved, then sliced
3 T butter
1 medium yellow squash, cut into 1/4 inch thick rounds, then cut in half
a handful of sugar snap peas, top ends trimmed off
1/2 cup garlic scape pesto (regular pesto works fine, too)
2 T flour
1/2 cup milk
4 oz pappardelle pasta
sea salt
freshly grated parmesan

Place a medium pot of water over high heat. Once boiling, add plenty of salt to your water and boil your pappardelle for 4 minutes (or according to package directions), then strain. 

While the water is coming to a boil, melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Once it's melted, add onions and cook just until they are translucent. Add the squash and snap peas and cook for 3-4 more minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and stir to evenly coat the vegetables. Cook for another minute or two, then add the milk, and stir constantly until sauce has thickened. Stir in your pesto until evenly distributed, and then add in cooked pasta. Gently combine until the pasta is coated evenly, then serve and top with parmesan.