multi ethnic vegetarian 'sausage' pasta with...

lots of fresh stuff from the greenhouse, mini-penne, and a pretty good fake sausage that kinda reminds me of gyro meat, the stuff they peel off the huge rotating mass of meat product. i love that shit. the best ever was at a hole-in-the-wall in Graz, Austria. i can only speculate that the reason it was so goddam good there is the proximity of Graz to Greece and Turkey. well ok some might be inclined to comment that they're not even in the same ballpark. but Graz is the closest i've ever been to Turkey so give the homeboy a break. back to the pasta dish...

so this fake sausage just has a hint of something Greek to me which is silly because i know very little about Greek food. i tend to avoid Greek restaurants. but lets skip to the chase. i love to make tzatziki. it comes from that part of the world. what's a gryo w/out tzatziki? well these meatless sausages beg for tzatziki.
on this particular night i wanted to venture beyond the scope of my limited Greek repertoire of mint and garlic infused yogurt sauce. so it was fresh mint and dry oregano that would pair with the meatless gyro sausage. pasta with a small dose of garlic-ey tomato sauce. a vibrant red ripe thai chili plucked from the greehouse along with a bunch of tiny tomatoes all chopped up and mixed. some chard fried in garlic-ey oil and chopped up fine. mixed together with parm and feta. and oh yeah i used korean mint instead of the regular variety. it's exotic mint. and it just adds a flavor from yet another part of the world to this simple dish.