Southeast Alaskan girl living in Oregon. Petsitter. Adventurous omnivore, aspiring adventurer, lover of life. I'm also pro-soup.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Zucchini! Zucchini! Zucchini!
One of my coworkers brought in five or six zucchini from his garden to work on Friday. I took two medium-sized ones. There was a huge one left at the end of the day. It apparently sat, biding its time until Monday morning. When my coworker came to work and saw the giant zucchini still sitting there, he peer-pressured me into taking it. I had already roasted up one of the Friday zucchinis and eaten it for lunch, leaving me one left. But, no. Not now. I had this huge zucchini to figure out what to do with now.
I sent out a recipe question to the internets and, thankfully, my friend Robin saved me. She suggested her Zucchini and Fresh Basil Pasta recipe to me, which, as soon as she said it, I smacked myself on the forehead because I had seen this recipe on her blog when she initially posted it and remembered thinking, "DANG! That looks good!" (FACT: everything on Robin's blog looks amazingly delicious. When it is not so hot and I feel like actually cooking more than home fries and veggie burgers for Jonathan and I, I will tackle more of her recipes. She has one of my favorite blogs, hands down. Okay, I'm done gushing. Back to zucchini! [There! I said it again!])
I altered her initial recipe a little bit to fit with what I had in my pantry. The only thing I bought from Trader Joe's was the parmesan. We can't keep sharply-flavored cheeses in the apartment because I will find them and eat them all. Blue cheese we can no longer buy. I can eat a large piece in one sitting. Then more in another sitting. I love cheese and I love sharply-flavored foods in general.
Digress!
I bought parmesan! I substituted the cute bowtie pasta for organic rotini that were 50% off because the box had been semi-crushed. I substituted actual basil plants for a small jar of TJ's pesto. I also doubled the parmesan because Jonathan and I love cheese.
Are you ready?
IT IS THE BIGGEST ZUCCHINI IN THE WORLD!!!
I made a zucchini monocle. Yes, that is Jonathan on the right, laughing at me. (Do you see my rockin' cowlick in the front? We [I] call it my "quail da-da". It was quite spry today.)
And back to the cooking...
My cheap rotini, my mound of parmesan, my delicious & organic beer (thank you, Deschutes!), and my cut-up zucchini.
I sauteed some garlic while the noodles cooked to al dente.
I cooked the zucchini maybe 8-10 minutes? It was still a little crunchy.
I mixed everything together and splashed some lemon juice on it. Yuuuummm!!
The fine print: This would also be good with pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, more lemon juice, actually following Robin's recipe, etc. Jonathan LOVED this meal and even jokingly (I think) said, "I love this!! I can't even taste the zucchini!" BOY, that guy is a kidder.
And that, my friends, is what I ate for dinner last night.
(Why are there so many more extra exclamation points in this post than usual? I know that everything is exciting to me, but, geez, Britt. Overkill, much?)
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Hahaha...I just love Jonathan's comment!! Cracked me right up!!
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