Yesterday morning I spent putzing around the Greenville Farmers Market. It's only a little 3 block thing, but I'm still shocked by some of the stands they have there. There's local honey, fresh pasta and ravioli, different kinds of meat and sausage, even seafood! Somehow, someway, I managed to keep my purchases to a minimum yesterday. Only 4. It was a challenge. And even more impressive, I managed to use 3 of them in dinner that night. I made Summer Linguine, courtesy of the ever wonderful Heidi Swanson and her new cookbook Super Natural Every Day.
It starts with zucchini and I had gotten 3 ginormous and pretty green zucchini. I only used one, but don't worry, the other two have big plans: zucchini bread...yum... So you shred and shred the zucchini and put it in a colander with a few pinches of salt and let it sit. The salt works to draw out the water in the zucchini, which is a surprising large amount. 
I also got a bunch of spring onions at the market. I absolutely love that one of them is purple, even though I have no idea why. It's just so pretty and bright. The original summer linguine recipe doesn't call for onions, but these were fresh and bright and they were going in too. So, a few of those got chopped up with two small cloves of garlic. And with that, prep was completed.
My other market buy that made it into this dish was fresh pasta, fresh garlic chive fettuccine to be exact. Not quite linguini, but it was fresh! It was garlic chive flavored! Plop, and that was in a pot of boiling water. And once that was done cooking, everything gets a quick saute in a skillet, in stages and that is that. Less than 5 minutes in a skillet and it goes on the plate, topped with a little bit of Parmesan. It came out so pretty, with the green zucchini and bright little red pepper flakes, it did look summery. I guess if I can't have summer vacation, I at least can have good summer food.
I shared with two friends from work, to rave reviews. "You can make zucchini pasta for me anytime!" But with all the fresh ingredients, how much credit am I allowed to take?
Summer Linguini
1 large or 2 medium zucchini, grated
8 oz of linguine, or other flat pasta
2 Tbs. oil
1-2 cloves of garlic
2-4 spring onions, chopped
2 tsp. red pepper flakes
Parmesan to top
Grate zucchini and put in colander. Sprinkle well with coarse salt and let drain 10-15 minutes over the sink. Remove and place in paper towels or clean dish towel; squeeze excess water out. Set aside.
Make pasta according to package directions. Drain, but reserve about a cup of pasta water.
In medium skillet over medium high heat, heat oil. Add garlic, onions and red pepper flakes. Saute 1-2 minutes until the garlic and onions become fragrant. Add zucchini to skillet and cook another minute or two more. Add pasta and toss until zucchini is completely throughout and cook another minute, to heat pasta through. If needed, add more oil or pasta water until desired consistency is reached.
Top with fresh grated Parmesan and eat immediately!
Made it with a combination of zucchini and squash with a lemon wedge it was fantastic!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! I never would have thought about that, but a squeeze of lemon would be perfect. Sounds like just the dose of summer that would be awesome on this rainy night!
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