Zucchini "Pasta" with Sauce

Every time I tell someone that I can't eat gluten, I get a similar response: "Oh my god! What DO you eat?"

Once, this conversation occurred while I was grocery shopping with a friend. I'd just told him that I'd have to skip the breakfast roll he was about to grab for me. Feeling guilty, he quickly cast his glance around in search of the nearest available substitute. "Um, can you have bananas?"

Yes. I can eat bananas. I can eat almost anything that didn't come out of a bakery or a brewery... at least, as long as we're talking about raw ingredients and not packaged products. But I've been out of the habit of buying anything packaged for years now, so I rarely even think about that. Who needs beef-stroganoff-in-a-box, anyway?

I could get all the packaged stuff in a gluten free version, if I really felt like it. At the health-food shop across the street from me, I can buy gluten-free crackers, bread, cereal bars, pasta, cookies, pita bread, sponge cake... even rice beer if I want to. (It tastes a lot like sake, in case you were wondering!) But most of the time I don't. I'm a whole-food junkie, and besides, those replacement products are expensive! Most of the time, I'd rather just figure out a way around it.

That's how this particular recipe came to be. I was out of rice pasta one night and craving spaghetti, so I grabbed the nearest veggie and started shredding it. Tossing it into a pan with some turkey breast, tomato sauce, onions, and seasoning, I managed to whip up this simple one-pan meal in under 30 minutes.

Although it won't twirl around your fork or give you the joy of slurping foot-long noodles off your plate like real pasta, the zucchini noodles are delicious in their own right. I've always been a fan of zucchini with pasta sauce, but I'd never realized how important the shape is in recreating the "spaghetti experience."

When you cube the zucchini, as I normally do, the zucchini is more the centerpiece of the meal. Each mouthful gives you a sudden burst of... well, zucchini... as you bite into the larger pieces. But with the fine shreds I used this time, the flavors blended together and allowed the sauce to stand out in it's own right. And really, when you're eating pasta and sauce, the noodles are just there to help carry the spicy tomato goodness to your mouth, aren't they?





Zucchini Pasta with Tomato Sauce:
This recipe is for one serving, but you could easily double or triple it if you like. The sauce is a very basic "quickie," but of course you could vary it in any way you want - mushrooms and Parmesan cheese come to mind as nice additions.

Ingredients:
1 Large Zucchini
4 oz turkey or chicken breast, uncooked
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 C. tomato sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
pinch black pepper
pinch rosemary


1. Browning the turkey:
Cut the turkey breast into bite size pieces and toss it into a hot skillet along with the onion and garlic. Stir this all briefly to get the browning process started, then turn the heat down to medium and let it keep cooking.

2. "Noodling" you zucchini:
Wash the zucchini and make sure your chef's knife is sharp. You're going to slice the zucchini lengthwise as thinly as you can. This is a bit tricky with a large zucchini; you may want to cut it in half first to make slicing it easier. The shape isn't too important - I realized at some point that I was really whittling more than slicing. This will give you big, wide ribbons of zucchini "noodles," which work just fine. If you want thinner strips, go ahead and keep chopping.

3. Putting it all together:
Add the zucchini strips to the turkey and onions. Pour the tomato sauce over everything, and add the seasonings. Stir it all together, cover the pan with a lid, and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Stir every so often to prevent sticking.