purewellnessamy

I made this super easy dinner last night.  I took it from the September 2010 issue of Vegetarian Times (p. 32).  There’s this great article starting on page 28 called “Primo Pasta. 10 outrageously easy 5-ingredient dinners.”  Oh yeah, I’m all over that article.  It’s just been so hot, I haven’t felt much like cooking.  But I can manage to put 4 ingredients together and toss them with some pasta.  The recipe actually calls for casareccia pasta, but I substituted whole wheat gobbetti pasta. 

True confession: my knife skills are an abomination. A-BOM-IN-A-TION.  The recipe calls for julienned zucchini and I ended up with this: 

 

In any case, it’s a super easy, quick dinner and it was quite good. Peter chowed it down, too.  I give it 5 out of 5 zucchinis. 

Casareccia with Zucchini and Fresh Basil 

Serves 4 | 30 minutes or fewer 

Casareccia look like macaroni that have been split open and twisted. The groovy shape is perfect for light sauces. 

8 oz. dry casareccia pasta (2 cups) [or pasta of your choice] 

4 small zucchini, julienned (4 cups) 

2 cloves garlic, minced 

1/4 cup low-fat ricotta [I used whole ricotta] 

1/2 cup torn fresh basil 

1. Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water according to package directions; add zucchini to pasta water 1 minute before end of cooking time. 

2. Meanwhile, whisk together garlic and ricotta in large bowl. Drain zucchini and pasta, and add to ricotta mixture. Stir in basil, and season with salt and pepper, if desired. 

Per 1- cup serving: 245 Cal; 11 G Prot; 2 G total fat (<1G Sat Fat); 47 G Carb; 5 MG Chol; 123 MG Sod; 3 G Fiber; 6 G Sugars. [Of course, these numbers will change if you use a different pasta or whole ricotta].  

Tagged: cooking at home, Pasta, zucchini