Thursday, September 3, 2009

Zucchini "Pasta"


At dinner with my friends Cara and Katri the other night, they both ordered the Zucchini "Tagliatelli," broad thin strips of zucchini made to look like pasta. I tried to recreate it at home and the only problem was that there wasn't enough!

Ingredients:
(to serve 4)

5-6 meduim zucchini
1 T olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
1 medium tomato, diced
salt
pepper
grated parmesan
1/4 c. chopped fresh basil (optional)


Here's how I did it: I peeled the zucchini first to try to fool Lily into thinking it was real pasta, although I don't think that's necessary. She took one bite and proclaimed, "Squash!" Thankfully that didn't deter her from eating the same 2 bites she normally eats at dinner.

After peeling the zucchini I sliced it on my handy mandoline, which you sort of need for this recipe because it would be really hard to do by hand. But maybe that's just me-- I can't even cut paper in a straight line.

After I had all of the zucchini sliced, I heated up the olive oil in a saute pan and added the zucchini and a clove of garlic. I then chopped up a tomato and added that for the last couple of minutes. I sauteed the zucchini for no more than 5 minutes total, then added salt, pepper and parmesan and served it. So simple! If I would have been thinking I would have added some fresh basil. But I wasn't. But it was yummy anyway-- I will definitely make it again.