renee anne // art. love. food. life

Recipe time again! Before I get started, I must say that I am not by any means a “good cook”. I fail more than I succeed, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to try. I would happily eat the same meal every night, but for some reason it has been instilled in me that we can’t really do that. Well I am sure I could. But you know what I mean.

Anyway, because I am a bit snack/desert crazy I like to have nice light dinner options, that make me feel like I am eating a big comforting meal, without all those uncomforting calories! Enter zucchini pasta! What a wonderful invention this is. I love pasta/Italian style meals, however I find it hard to be good with portion sizes, so when I heard people talking about replacing the pasta with zucchini, I thought what a fabulous idea! All the hearty Italian fun, without that heavy bulky feeling at the end of the meal.

Here are the instructions for you, I know they are not very precise, but I really don’t think they need to be. I am hopefully just showing you an alternative way to prepare zucchini to help you lighten up those pasta dishes. Feel free to experiment with toppings, and be sure to let me know if you do!

You will need
> julienne peeler
> bowl
> fry pan (optional)

Ingredients*
> 3-4 large zucchinis
> olive oil
> sea salt

Method
Wash zucchinis and cut off the ends. Lie a zucchini on your chopping board and run your julienne peeler the length of the zucchini, creating a long thin strip. Repeat this process for the whole zucchini, you will get used to the technique as you go. Try and slice the whole length in one swoop so you get nice long strips.

Once sliced, place in a large bowl. Cover with some olive oil and sea salt (I used 2 tbsp for 3 zucchinis but you might like more or less). Toss to coat and let sit for a few hours to marinate (optional).

Decide on your ‘topping’, just go with what you normally like on your pasta. At this point, you can either serve with the raw zucchini, or you can warm/soften it slightly.

If cooking, take your fry pan and toss in the zucchini strips. After a few minutes they will begin to soften up. Add your pasta sauce (try homemade tomato sauce with mushrooms and onion) give it a stir, and then serve! Again, if you like cheese, extra seasoning, add that too!

You will have to judge serving size. 3-4 large zucchinis should make enough pasta for 2 people or 4 as a side.

**please also note :: sorry if you can spot the typo in my printable download. that is so so terrible of me. I did try to fix it but I am stupid and flattened my .psd file. what an idiot. don't hate me.

If you are like me and need your cappuccino hit daily (maybe even twice daily!) then you might want to think about getting yourself a niffty little reusable take-away cup. I love my T2 thermo mug that my Mum kindly bought for me, but use whatever you fancy, just try to avoid the disposable take-away cup. (Most nice coffee places should give you a discount too, if they don't, go someplace else! hehe)