Sunday, January 18, 2009

Zucchini Fettuccine Penne...mmmm

Sort of a funny name. I made this delicious dish tonight for dinner. The idea came from taking a couple of my favorite things and combining them for something really amazing. Has anyone noticed I love sharing what i cook?

Zucchini Fettuccine Penne
1 box of Dreamfields or Barilla plus Penne Pasta
1 1/2 cups cooking liquid from pasta reserved (more for thinner consistency)
3 tiny Zucchinis or 1 Large
1/2 Cup diced sweet onion
5 Cloves Garlic diced (average size)
1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon dried oregano
1 Tbls minced fresh flat leaf parsley
3-4 Cranks of the Pepper Grinder
1 Cup Parmesan Cheese (from the jar, fresh never works for this)
2 Egg Yolks

Kosher Salt

Start your pasta in a large pot. The average cooking time of Penne is 11 minutes, salt your pasta water with KOSHER salt. This is very important if you would like your dish to have any flavor. Feel free to omit for health reasons but its very important otherwise. You want to salt the water to the taste of seawater. About a half a handful of kosher salt does the trick for me.

Put your olive oil in a large frying pan and heat on medium - high heat. Chop your onions and dice your garlic-put aside. Chop your Zucchini into quarters. Once your oil is a bit hot, add your onions then Zucchini then garlic. This order is important so you dont burn your garlic (its nasty if it burns) Stir it all up. Add like a teaspoon of your kosher salt to this. If not much is going on kick the heat up a bit. Separate your eggs-put aside.

Before you strain your pasta be sure to reserve your 1 1/2 or more cups of liquid-put aside. Pour your pasta back into your large pot you boiled it in. Your zucchini onion and garlic mixture will be ready when the onions turn a bit translucent and everything is slightly soft. not mush, soft. Add oil, zucchini, garlic, and onion mixture to pasta. Add also your Parsley, Oregano and Fresh Cracked pepper. Mix well till pasta is completly coated with everything.

Add the Parmesan cheese and approx 1 cup of the reserved cooking liquid. Put back over medium heat. Stir Vigourously for 3-5mins!! Add the yolks and STIR VERY VIGOROUSLY! You do not want to scramble your eggs. The dish will become very thick at this point, add the rest of the water, keep stirring and over medium heat for another 3 mins and you will end up with a lovely dish.
I hope you all will try this out. Feel free to add whatever spices you like, more or less. Cooking is fun! Experiment! If your a meat eater i guess you could add like chicken?

xoxo
Julia Catherine

P.S.
Don't forget to vote for the january giveaway to the right>

5 comments:

  1. Look wonderful, I'm going to try this!

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  2. Mmm that looks yummy and easy to make! I think this is definitely going to be dinner this week! -Tea

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  3. I just made this, I't is Awesome!, thank you for blogging this!

    Eddie

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  4. yummy! Even for a veggie like myself :)

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