Springtime Pasta
Posted: April 30, 2011 Filed under: Tina Wrote It | Tags: quick pasta easy 8 Comments
This super easy springtime pasta came together the other night when we needed a quick dinner. While a large pot of salted water got to boiling, I chopped 2 zucchinis and tossed them with the juice of one lemon (first zest!), a drizzle of olive oil, a few cloves of minced garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and popped them in an oven at 425F for 15 minutes. While the zucchini was quickly roasting, I cooked pasta until al dente, tossed with the zest of one lemon and many grates of Parmesan cheese, a bit of salt and lots of fresh pepper. I combined the squash with the pasta tasted it and added more lemon juice and olive oil and a lot of chopped parsley and VOILA! Delicious.
Readers, do you find my recent tossed-together recipe posts more difficult to read than a standard recipe – you know with ingredients and steps and whatnot? Let me know in the comments and I’ll go back to writing most of the recipe posts in a more standardized fashion!
30 Bucks a Week 
Personally, I love the improvised recipes. That’s how most of the women in my family cook, so some of the best recipes I’ve got are of the “throw together a bit of x and a few globs of y until it looks about right” variety.
I’ve grated and sauteed zucchini for over pasta lots of time. But haven’t ever roasted it. Will make a note to try roasting when our garden bounty starts overflowing with zucchini.
I think tossed-together recipes are optimal, because that’s the way most of us cook. Exception: baking. That said, you should do whatever you’re most comfortable with.
I like the improvised way you present improvised meals. Perhaps if there are a lot of ingredients and steps it’d be easier to follow the traditional way but for meals like this I think it’s great.
The improvised recipe works just great as long they are short (and quick) like this one. Now, on to seeing if I still have some zucchini left to roast up.
Radman
I like recipes like this. It’s how my brother explains things when I help him out in his kitchen. I think I just retain information better this way, than reading a dry list of ingredients and steps. Plus, this makes you feel like you can improvise, add something of your own.
I just tried this and it was fantastic! Thank you for the recipe, I will definitely be making it again.
I think that worked just fine and it looks good too 🙂