Zucchini, Squash and Tomato Sauce

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One of the hardest things about trying to eat more local, organic, sustainable food is that you eat “in season”. That means that you have quite a bit of time where a particular fruit or vegetable is very abundant and you might get sick of it. I find that it challenges me to come up with meals that might be similar to other meals that we’ve had, but just different enough so that it keeps you interested and the food flavorful.  In the summer, that means that there’s lots of zucchini and yellow squash.  I decided to mix it up a little with a very familiar stew that I make, but make it a little differently.

• olive oil
• 4 zucchini
• 4 yellow squash
• 5 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped
• 2 med onions peeled and chopped
• 2 containers of chopped tomatoes
• tomato paste
• pinches of dried parsley, basil and oregano
• worcestershire sauce

Wash the zucchini and squash very thoroughly and then slice them very thinly into coins.  I used a mandoline.

Aren't they beautiful?

Heat a large pot on med/high heat (use a large pot, I didn’t and it caused more work – keep reading, you’ll see).  When it’s hot add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan.  When the oil ribbons, add the dried herbs and stir about a minute or so, till it’s very aromatic. Add the garlic and onions and cook until they’re silky and translucent.

Start adding your zucchini and squash into the pan, tossing to coat and cook.

Overcrowding is never a good thing

At this point I realized that this pot was going to overflow and I wasn’t going to get the results that I wanted, so I got the big pasta pot, heated that up, added a little bit of oil and then started to transfer everything from the small pot to the big pot.  Now I had two pots to clean.  Thank goodness I have teenagers that clean up after dinner.

The pot I should have started with

Cook the zucchini and squash, stirring frequently, letting them get a little bit brown, but not burnt.

Add the chopped tomatoes

and then two heaping spoonfuls of the tomato paste

With a dish like this, I would usually add some balsamic vinegar or red wine, but we’ve been doing that a lot, so I decided to use Worcestershire Sauce instead.  About 1/3 of a cup.

We served it with roasted chicken breast and it was so good!  The thinly sliced squash, almost made it like a pasta dish but low carb!  I think I’m going to start experimenting with zucchini ribbons…

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