Delicious Summer Pasta

It's true, I eat a lot of pasta. But can you really ever eat too much pasta? The other day, I found myself with a great mix of flavors and textures to make a typical bowl of pasta feel gussied up. This could easily be turned into a vegetarian dish as well.

Here's what I used:

-1 avocado

-2 leftover chicken thighs (I prefer dark to light meat for more flavor, but anything works)

-1 ear of sweet corn, shaved

-half an onion, diced

-2 stems of celery, chopped

-2 cloves of garlic, minced

-2-3 oz. of herbed chevre

-2-3 oz. cream

-1 lb. linguini

First, boil your pasta and get that out of the way. I love linguini because it's got some body to hold a heavy sauce, but works for more delicate sauces as well. Al dente, please!

Next, with a little oil or butter in the pan, toss in your onion till it starts to sweat. Add the garlic and cook till caramelized. (Sidenote: If your garlic starts cooking faster than the onion, I like to slow it down by adding a little water to let the onion "catch up." Many recipes start with garlic before onion, but that never seems to work for me- and I like the stronger flavor by adding the garlic later. But feel free to deviate if you're a garlic-first kind of person.)

Add the chicken and celery, just long enough to heat it up. (If you have raw chicken, cook that first!) Then toss in the corn. I like the corn and celery to have some crunch so the dish has a range of textures.

Add the cream and let it boil. I usually eyeball it to cover the veggies, but add more if you like a saucy pasta.

Toss in the linguini and using a tongs, mop up all that saucy goodness. Transfer to a bowl and add crumbled chevre, diced avocado and fresh pepper. Then invite me over for dinner.