Cowboy Pasta — Garden Tomatoes Finally Meet Their Match

The 4-H fair is next week and Jack is in competition mode. His display board this year is more sophisticated — growth charts, soil analysis data, a comparison between this year's yield and last year's, and a section on composting that includes before-and-after photos of his compost pile evolution. He also has a jar of his compost on the display board, labeled "Grade A — Holloway Garden, 2018." He is showing compost at the county fair. I have never been more proud or more confused about what my life has become.

I'm canning the overflow tomatoes this week. The garden is producing more than we can eat fresh — three to four pounds of Romas per day, plus a steady stream of Beefsteaks and cherry tomatoes. I blanched, peeled, and canned twelve quarts of crushed tomatoes from the garden crop alone. Garden tomatoes. Not store-bought. Not the Roma tomatoes from the bulk bin at Hy-Vee. These are Jack's tomatoes, grown in Jack's soil, canned in my jars, labeled "Holloway Garden Roma — 2018." Next to them on the counter sat the Green Giant corn and the store-bought beans, and the garden tomatoes looked different. They looked earned.

Emma went to art camp and came home with a watercolor painting of sunflowers — Jack's sunflowers, from the backyard, nine feet tall and nodding in the heat. She painted them from memory, golden and brown against a blue sky, and the painting was good. Really good. Better than anything I could do, better than anything I expected from a ten-year-old, and when she showed it to Jack he said, "You got the height right." That was his review. The height was right. The art was irrelevant to Jack. The accuracy was everything.

I made fresh salsa from the garden — Jack's tomatoes, jalapeños, cilantro from the herb pot, onion, lime, salt. The best salsa I've ever made, and it's because the ingredients were picked twenty minutes before I made it. There's a window — a short window — between when a tomato is picked and when it starts dying, and if you cook within that window, the food tastes alive. That's the only word for it. Alive. The way farm food tastes when you eat it in the field, still warm from the sun, still connected to the soil by the warmth in its skin.

After a week of blanching, peeling, and canning twelve quarts of Roma tomatoes — and still having more coming in off the vine every single day — I needed a recipe that could actually keep up with the garden. Those canned tomatoes I’d just labeled “Holloway Garden Roma — 2018” went straight into this skillet, alongside the corn and beans that had been sitting on the counter looking a little humbled by comparison. Cowboy Pasta felt right: it’s big and unfussy and it uses everything, which is exactly the kind of cooking this garden demands. Jack approved of the efficiency. I approved of the fact that it was done in thirty minutes.

Cowboy Pasta

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef (80/20)
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (or 2 cups fresh garden tomatoes, chopped)
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup frozen or fresh corn kernels
• 1 can (10 oz) diced tomatoes with green chiles (such as Ro-Tel)
• 2 cups beef broth
• 8 oz rotini or elbow pasta, uncooked
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup shredded cheddar or Colby Jack cheese
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (optional, for serving)

Instructions

1. Brown the beef. In a large, deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, cook the ground beef, breaking it up with a spoon, until no longer pink, about 6–8 minutes. Drain excess fat.
2. Soften the aromatics. Add the diced onion to the skillet and cook with the beef for 3–4 minutes until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
3. Add seasonings. Sprinkle in the chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Stir to coat the beef and onion mixture evenly.
4. Build the base. Pour in both cans of tomatoes (or fresh chopped tomatoes plus the canned tomatoes with chiles), the beef broth, black beans, and corn. Stir to combine and bring to a gentle boil.
5. Cook the pasta. Add the uncooked pasta directly to the skillet. Stir well, reduce heat to medium, and cover. Cook for 12–14 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is tender and has absorbed most of the liquid.
6. Finish with cheese. Remove from heat. Sprinkle the shredded cheese evenly over the top, replace the lid, and let sit 2–3 minutes until melted.
7. Serve. Scoop into bowls and top with fresh cilantro if desired. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 480 | Protein: 28g | Fat: 16g | Carbs: 54g | Fiber: 7g | Sodium: 780mg