
photo from http://www.foodieinwv.com
Every day that I post another pasta recipe especially one that isn’t one with gravy, the traditional tomato sauce served with meatballs and/or sausage, I marvel at the seemingly endless ways there are to incorporate two great food groups; Pasta, that filling carbohydrate, whose very lack of flavor (except for Barilla), lends itself as a base canvas upon which we can create delicious vegetable dishes from nature’s own colorful palette. And to think, growing up in my Italian household, I never had any pasta that didn’t have tomato sauce on it except for Friday’s Aglio e Olio, a recipe that I must post – maybe next Friday.
INGREDIENTS:
2 TBS EV Olive oil
1 medium yellow onion diced medium
2 medium zucchini, diced medium
1/2 lb cemini or button mushrooms, trimmed and quartered
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (28 oz) tomato purée
coarse salt and ground pepper
2 TBS fresh oregano leaves, coarsely chopped
1 lb rigatoni**
DIRECTIONS:
In medium pot or braising pan, heat oil over medium-high. Add onion and cook till translucent, about 5 minutes. Add zucchini and mushrooms and cook until vegetables soften slightly, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add tomato purée, season with salt and pepper, and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to a rapid simmer and cook until zucchini is crisp-tender, about 8 mintues. Stir in oregano.
Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook pasta until al dente. Reserve 1 cup cooking liquid; drain pasta and add to sauce, tossing to combine and adding enough pasta water to create a sauce that coats pasta. Serve immediately.
** You can substitute ziti or penne rigate for the rigatoni. Also dicing the vegetables rather small allows them to tuck into the tube pasta.
Recipe from Martha Stewart EveryDay Food