Zucchini “Pasta” Salad

The zucchini itself takes the place of pasta in this recipe, creating yet another easy, quick way to use up your garden zucchini bounty that is both light and healthy. There are many ways you could cut your zucchini, but I used a small, inexpensive mandolin made specifically to julienne vegetables and it worked great. If don’t have a mandolin, and you can either use a vegetable peeler or a knife. The peeler method will give you long flat noodles, and if using a knife, just cut the zucchini into thin slices, stack up, and cut again lengthwise into thin strips. I like the size and thickness I was able to get using my little mandolin and using young, fresh zucchini I did not need to pre blanch them first.

I simply tossed the fresh julienned zucchini with the hot oil sauce which cooked it just enough to create tender zucchini that still were a little “al dente”, just how I like my pasta. If you are cutting by hand and getting thicker pieces, you might want to blanch the zucchini in boiling water for 30 seconds to a minute, then drain it and toss it with the sauce. Zucchini cut in this fashion are also great to use in salads. To make my zucchini salad, I like to toss my julienned zucchini with a little lemon juice, olive oil, fresh thyme, salt and pepper.

• Tomatoes are rich in Lycopene, vitamin C, potassium, iron, and fiber.
• Summer squash such as zucchini is a good source of vitamins A, C, as well as fiber.