Friday, April 24, 2009

Not-Quite-Raw Spaghetti and Sauce

I'm definitely not "going raw" on you here, but the zucchini "noodles" that raw foodies use in place of traditional cooked pasta have always interested me.
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And oddly enough, I've owned a spiral slicer since, like, forever - because I'm a kitchen-gadget-nerd like that: (evidently spiral slicers are a raw-kitchen necessity, and important for making super-skinny noodle-type slices of zucchini ...which look a lot like worms, ...but I digress...)

So tonight when faced with the dilemma (MAJOR crisis!!!) of not-quite-enough spaghetti for the hungry natives, plus a wealth of zucchini and some grape tomatoes, I decided to give this raw "noodle" thing a try... This is NOT a "raw" recipe because I did use cooked pasta as well, but it was definitely a fun experiment with tasty results.
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First:
I cooked the bit of pasta I had, and while that was cooking, I shredded (or sliced?) the zuchinni into long, spiraling "noodles". I ended up with a ratio of about 2/3rds raw zucchini and 1/3 cooked pasta.
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Next:
After I drained the cooked pasta, I tossed the zucchini with it and drizzled with a little olive oil. Yes, I suppose the heat from the pasta "cooked" the zucchini somewhat.
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Then:
I topped everything with the following "raw" tomato sauce which I've actually made many times before. The sauce is amazing on hot summer days when you don't want to heat up the kitchen!! I admit my tiny grape tomatoes weren't garden-fresh, but they had a nice flavor anyway.
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Uncooked Tomato Sauce

1 clove garlic, peeled
2 pounds fresh garden-grown tomatoes (strong, sweet ones work best - cherry, grape, yellow, roma, whatever you have)
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes
2(ish) packed Tablespoons fresh basil leaves, rosemary, parsley, whatever you like
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Blend all of the above in a food processor until smooth.
Add red pepper flakes and a splash of red-wine vinegar to taste if you like.... Pour over pasta of your choice. Enjoy!!


Have a great weekend, enjoy the sunshine (if any shines in your part of the world - lots of "liquid sunshine" here!!).

5 comments:

Carly said...

Looks great - it'll definitely come in handy when we're (hopefully!) overloaded with fresh tomatoes from our garden this summer.

Anonymous said...

That sauce sounds delicious! I can't wait to try it once tomatoes show up at the farmers market...hopefully soon?!

Courtney

Sal - AlienOnToast said...

raw zuke noodles have always interested me too, i keep meaning to give them a try!

Your dish sounds lovely.

♥ Lindsay ♥ said...

Wow! This dish has caught my attention and looks so intriguing... I may just have to give it a go when the veggies are ready for harvesting.

Helen said...

Looks great, I am trying to up my raw intake so will be making this.