Tiramisu': Zucchini

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Spaghetti with Creamy Zucchini Sauce

Paoletta, the very talented author of Anice e Cannella, invited her readers to join in a summer game (Giochino d'estate). The idea is to replicate or reinvent this dish, and send her a photo of the final creation. She will then select three photos and publish them in her blog.

Since I have zucchini coming out of my ears (typical Italian expression, mi escono dalle orecchie), I decided to try this delicious sounding pasta sauce today. Plus I am having so much fun discovering blogs in Italian, so perche' no (why not)?

Below is a closer look at the tomato topping, one word-DELICIOUS! I made only minor changes to the recipe. Since I can't have too many tomatoes I cooked more than the recipes called for, I also used sliced almonds since I had them and thought that they would look nicer. The original recipe sounded perfect but I decided to add some chili flakes to the tomatoes just as I turned off the heat. The added spiciness worked perfectly to add a little more zest to this otherwise perfect dish. This was a great dish to have in this super hot summer evening.

For non-Italian readers here is the recipe, with my changes, in English:

Spaghetti with Creamy Zucchini Sauce
Four Servings

one shallot
three zucchini, cut in small cubes
marjoram
basil
EVOO
Salt and Pepper
3 TBS grated Pecorino cheese
40 grams of sliced almonds, toasted
a handful of small tomatoes
pinch of chili flakes
320 grams spaghetti

Sautée the shallot in olive oil. Add the zucchini, the herbs, salt and pepper, and cook for 10 minutes. Puree the zucchini, adjust with more salt and pepper if desired, and add the Pecorino cheese. In another sautée pan, cook the toasted almonds in a little oil, add the sliced tomatoes and cook at high heat for 5 minutes, set aside. Cook the pasta al dente, drain and mix it with the zucchini puree. Plate the pasta and add the tomatoes and almonds on the top. Add more freshly grated Pecorino and some julienned basil.

Ho fatto solo delle piccole variazioni alla ricetta originale. Ho usato piu' pomodorini perche' non mi stanco mai di mangiarli e ne ho a bizzeffe, e ho usato le mandorle tagliate sottili. Ho anche insaporito con un pizzico di peperoncino i pomodori e le mandorle dopo averli tolti dal fuoco, e li ho aggiunti sopra gli spaghetti invece di mescolarli con il sugo di zucchine.

Buon Appetito!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Spreding the Gratitude and a Recipe for Zucchini Bread

Jill of Jillicious Discoveries surprised me with a "one lovely blog" award. I am relatively new as a blogger, but have been reading many blogs for a long time. I find the blogging community so amazingly talented, and one day I hope to meet some of the people I have gotten to "know" through their blogs. Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Jill during one of her trips to the Bay Area where she once lived. I was surprised when I realized that I felt like I had known Jill for a long time. If it hadn't been for her two friends who joined us for dinner, we would have talked dessert non stop. Jill is very bubbly and super nice, she loves what she does and she is very creative. Please visit her blog for fun posts and recipes.

To thank Jill for her recognition I am passing along the Zucchini Bread recipe she published in this post. Like Jill, and thanks to three gardens I was watering this past week, I now have too many zucchini to possibly use in our family, and some are huge so I knew something needed to be done (besides begging everyone I know to take some). Since I don't have a trusted recipe for zucchini bread I tried Jill's because it sounded great with not too much sugar, tons of zucchini and the nuttiness of the pecans. The recipe takes more time than a regular quick bread thanks to a step where you let the zucchini release some of their water, but in all the recipe was easy to execute. I actually ground the pecans almost to a flour since I know some picky eaters who hate nuts, but leaving the pecans in bigger pieces would have worked great as well. The resulting bread is very moist, not too sweet, and really yummy. I will be making more soon to give it away to the many people who make my life sweeter.

I am not sure who started this but the idea is to pass this award to thirteen other bloggers, so you can imagine how hard it was to choose with so many talented people out there. Some blogs are in Italian, but that is one of the many reasons I love them. Some bloggers I read have been given this award already so you know who you are, some others are already amazingly recognized that I feel too little to give them this award. I would like to extend the gratitude for all the amazing people that inspire me on a daily basis to the following bloggers: