Zucchini and Ricotta Shells

A summery pasta dish!

Sometimes pasta feels a little heavy in the warm summer months, unless it's in pasta salad form. Instead of tomato sauce, this recipe relies on the zesty flavor of lemon. Canadian Living magazine suggests pairing the pasta with a Sauvingnon Blanc or an Italian Soave.

Although this dish could stand alone, we think it works best as an accompaniment to chicken or fish.

The recipe comes from the May 2010 issue of Canadian Living, and can also be found online. It's from their "quick and easy" series - and it lives up to that designation. Admittedly, it's not spectacular, but it is a quick, easy, and pretty tasty.

Zucchini and Ricotta Shells

Makes 4 servings

4 cups medium or large shell pasta

1/2 cup ricotta

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 zucchini

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh mint

2 tablespoons fresh chopped onion

2 tablespoons lemon juice

• Cook pasta according to package. Drain, but save 1/2 cup of the cooking water.
• In large bowl, toss together pasta, ricotta, lemon rind, salt, pepper, and 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water.
• Quarter the zucchini, lengthwise. Cut away the core and cut (with a bit of diagonal flair) into slices.
• Heat oil in frying pan over medium-high heat. Sauté zucchini for about 5 minutes, until tender.
• Add zucchini to pasta, along with mint, green onion, and lemon juice. Use the remaining pasta water to achieve desired creaminess. Toss together to coat pasta.

Just wait until the end of the summertime

when zucchini overtakes gardens...

Sliced and ready to sauté

Fresh mint is incredibly fragrant

Next step: toss!

Enjoy!

Zucchini Chicken

Zucchini is still coming out of our ears!

"Classy Chicken" is the name of this recipe on AllRecipes. Not only did I take the small liberty of slightly modifying the recipe, I took the larger liberty of renaming it. "Zucchini Chicken" may be less original, but "Classy Chicken" evokes a strange image of Ron Burgundy reminding San Diego to "stay classy" before digging into a plate of chicken tossed with zucchini. 

1 cup flour

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

Salt & pepper

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 cup fat-free chicken brother

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 zucchini - cut in half lengthwise, then sliced diagonally

5 sun-dried tomatoes (I used 1/2 cup canned diced tomatoes, drained)

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon dill weed

1/3 cup fat-free sour cream

• Season chicken with salt & pepper. Coat in flour, shaking off excess. Heat butter in large skillet. Brown chicken over medium-high heat, about 3 min each side.
• Pour chicken broth and white wine into skillet. Stir in mustard.
• (Pour a glass of wine for yourself. Drink.)
• Cover and cook until chicken is partly-cooked (still a little pink inside).
• Add zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, and dill weed. Cover and cook 5-10 minutes, until chicken is cooked and zucchini is tender.
• Set chicken on platter... it's not classy yet.
  
• Stir sour cream into pan liquid, adding more wine if necessary (or desired). Sprinkle in a little salt. Pour over chicken.

   

   

This one is a keeper. Next time I'll try adding fresh tomato, to add color and make it even more summery.

Zucchini Brownies

Raised eyebrows. A stifled laugh. Finally vocalized: "you're putting a green vegetable into a chocolate dessert?"

It's zucchini season. Anyone who has a zucchini plant in their backyard knows that you don't get just one or two vegetables off of a plant - you get an armload. You can only eat so many grilled zucchini side dishes, and zucchini parmesan starts to get old fast too... Someone with an abundance of zucchini was probably trying to think of places to hide the green squash and figured that dark, delicious (?) chocolate brownies might provide a good disguise. 

Side note, before your sweet tooth is visits heaven: zucchinis are a pretty good food to squeeze into your day. A quick google search revealed that this fruit (we're insisting on calling it a vegetable) is a good source of vitamin C, and is high in folate, potassium, manganese, and vitamin A. 

Healthy brownies?... that might be a stretch. 

We found the recipe on AllRecipes.

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1  1/2 cups white sugar

2 teasons vanilla extract

MIX! 

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1  1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

MIX!

2 cups shredded zucchini

FOLD! 

(The recipe also calls for walnuts, but we left those out. We searched cupboards high and low, but we just didn't have any.)

Press the batter into a greased and floured 9x13 pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes. 

After folding the zucchini into the chocolate-y batter, we realized we probably should have peeled the zucchini: there were dark green splotches throughout the otherwise brown concoction. Too late! 

Good news: apparently the rind is loaded with beta-carotene. 

The green seemed to be less noticeable after baking anyway.

Now for the icing. This stuff was weird. 

1/4 cup margarine

6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups confectioner's sugar

1/4 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the margarine and cocoa powder together, set aside to cool.

Blend the sugar, milk, and vanilla (...love vanilla). Stir it into the cocoa mixture. 

Sounds simple - but - this is the weirdest icing we've ever seen. It wasn't a liquid - it was crumbly! Once the brownies cooled, we literally had to press the icing on. Much to our surprise, it worked!