Cheesy Pasta Primavera

This is yet another recipe from Everyday Food magazine - can you tell where I went for my recipes this particular week!! EF volume 91, thank you!! Ha! I loved this recipe bc it was very much like comfort food, but with all the veggies it kind of felt healthy, too :) I love it, too, bc I strayed away from the original recipe and it was still so yummy. I think you could add whatever you like to suit your tastes & you'll still love it!

For this recipe, you'll need:

• coarse salt and ground pepper
• whole wheat fusili or other short twisted pasta (I really wanted to try wheat pasta, but I only had regular fusili on hand, but I will be trying the wheat at some point)
• 3 tbs butter
• 1 onion (I used sweet)
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 2 zucchini or yellow squash (I used yellow squash), cut into 1/4 inch half moons
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 grated parmesan, plus more for serving
• 1/3 cup fresh basil leaves (I didn't have any of these, therefore didn't use them :)

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain pasta, but reserve 1 cup pasta water for later in the recipe...

Melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onions & cook until translucent. This is where I threw in some mushrooms I had to add more flavor to the sauce (And I cut them big enough for the hubby to pick out, since he doesn't like mushrooms, but is okay with using them in sauces :)

Add flour and whisk to combine

Add milk and cook, whisking frequently, until simmering and thickened, about 10 minutes - doesn't that look yummy??? Season with salt and pepper (and garlic powder if you'd like, just sayin').

Add yellow squash and cook until crisp-tender, about 6-8 minutes.

Stir in pasta, parmesan, and tomatoes (I saved the tomatoes for later bc hubby doesn't like tomatoes & I put them on the side so he wouldn't have to pick them out :). At this point, I used the remaining pasta water to make the sauce the right consistency (I didn't use the full cup bc I like sauce on the thicker side).

Here's my bowl! I added the tomatoes, mixed it up, and added the avocado on top since I had one in the fridge - isn't it pretty?? And it tasted so fresh and yummy! The avocado added a nice buttery addition to the pasta - to go with the butter & cream already in the dish :) Enjoy!