Recipe: Tricolore Pasta with Zucchini, Onion, Tomato Sauce

I grew a huge zucchini this summer and was trying to figure what to do with it. The reason it was so huge was because I plucked most of the flowers to fry leaving a few left to mature into fruit.

I have this fascination with different pastas and shapes and spied Barilla's Tri Color Fiori (flower) on sale for 99¢ at Pathmark recently. A box of pasta. A huge zucchini. A large bottle of tomato sauce in the pantry that I also bought on sale and a basket of onions. I decided to make a vegetarian dish for dinner tonight and interestingly enough, the color of the vegetables is echoed in the pasta.

Ingredients

• 4 cloves garlic crushed (I used a garlic press but if you don't have one, mince it fine)
• 1 large onion chopped
• 2 zucchini diced
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• few grinds of fresh cracked black pepper

• 12 oz box of tri colored pasta (any shape you like)

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation

1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil (this is for the pasta).

2. In a large skillet over medium flame, heat the olive oil for a few seconds and add the crushed garlic. Saute for a few seconds to perfume the oil and then add the chopped onion.

3. Saute until onion is soft (about 5 minutes) then add the diced zucchini. Saute for about another 5 minutes (I like my veggies to maintain their integrity and not be over cooked mush) and then add 1 cup tomato sauce.

4. Stir to incorporate everything together.

5. Finish with sprinkling of salt and pepper and set aside off heat covered. The vegetables will continue to cook slowly steaming under the cover.

This can be served by itself as a vegetable side dish.














By this time, the water has hopefully boiled and you can follow manufacturer's direction on cooking your pasta. When the pasta is done, drain and toss with the vegetable mixture.


Garnish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top and a handful of grated Parmesan cheese.

This dish serves 4.

Recipe: Sweet Simmered Kabocha

I stopped in at Whole Foods to see what they had on sale and saw that Winter Squash was selling for $1.29/lb (although it rang up as 79¢/lb). I bought a nice sized Kabocha Squash (Japanese Pumpkin) since I've had it before in Japanese restaurants and it's so tasty but never cooked it myself. The cooked texture is creamy and starchy almost like a sweet potato, not stringy like a common orange pumpkin. Nice thing about Kabocha is that you can also eat the skin after it's cooked so no need for peeling it..

Here is a recipe courtesy of About.com's Japanese Food Guide, Setsuko Yoshizuka.

Kabocha is commonly simmered in Japan. Kabocha amani (simmered sweet kabocha) is the most popular kabocha dish. It's often served in a Japanese-style meal as a side dish.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kabocha (1 lb.), seeds removed
• 1 cup water
• 4 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce

Preparation:

Cut kabocha into about 1 and 1/2 inch cubes. Peel kabocha skin around the edges. Put water, sugar, soy sauce, and kabocha in a medium pot. Heat on high heat and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to low. Put a drop-lid or a sheet of aluminium foil on kabocha and cover with lid. Simmer kabocha for about 15 minutes, or until the liquid is almost gone.
*Makes 4 servings