Linguine with Zucchini, Caprese Salad, and Garlic Bread

I decided to try one of my cookbooks I hadn't tried before. It's called Student's Vegetarian Cookbook: Quick, Easy, Cheap, and Tasty Vegetarian Recipes. It has recipes for 1-2 servings that are easy and low budget. I selected Pasta with Zucchini and Basil because we had an extra zucchini in the fridge. I also added a few other items we had in the fridge and doubled it to serve 2. Below is the recipe with my modifications.

Linguine with Zucchini, Peppers, Red Onion, and Basil

1/3 lb uncooked linguine

2 tbsp olive oil

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 large zucchini sliced 1/2" and quartered

3 mini sweet peppers, diced into 1/2" squares

1/4 red onion, largely diced

1 1/2 tbsp basil

salt and pepper

1 lemon juiced

grated parmesan cheese

1. Bring a covered pot of water to a rapid boil. Stir in the pasta and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat to medium but maintain a simmer. Cook until pasta is al dente, start checking about 4 minutes before cook time on the box.

2. While the pasta cooks, heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, zucchini, peppers, onion, and basil. Quickly fry until the zucchini begins to brown, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the lemon juice and stir, remove from heat.

3. When the pasta is al dente, drain it (reserve some cooking liquid). Place the hot pasta in a warm bowl, top with zucchini veggie mixture, and grated parmesan. Add a few tbsp reserved water to pasta. Toss lightly. Salt and pepper to taste.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to add the correct amount of basil to the dish. The basil brought back from the grocery store was only half usable, and I put it all in the Caprese Salad. I remembered at the end the pasta needed basil too, so I spooned some from the caprese dressing onto the zucchini mixture. I think if I had put the correct amount of basil into the dish, it would have been more flavorful. Also it needed more of a sauce. Next time I would reduce 1 cup of white wine in the zucchini mixture after it was browned. This should add a lot more flavor and liquid. All in all, the dish was mediocre, even with the addition of the peppers and onions (which were delicious!). This is ok because the Caprese Salad turned out amazing!

Caprese Salad

I did not have access to good heirloom tomatoes, so I substituted the most flavorful tomatoes the grocery carries, campari. Fortunately for us, they were on sale! I have been waiting months to see them 2(1 lb packages) for $4 rather than $4-$5 each! I used 1 lb tomatoes and 6 oz of mozzarella for the 2 of us but pretty much used the entire vinaigrette recipe. I didn't measure the oil and vinegar exactly, just kind of poured and stirred until it looked right. I substituted white balsamic vinegar for the red wine and it was a perfect substitution. Alex and I were discussing whether I should follow the recipe, use balsamic, or white balsamic. Alex thought I should use balsamic because of it's sweetness, but I thought it would be too strong and compete with the other flavors. We both thought red wine vinegar is just too boring. I decided to use white balsamic because it is light, but very bright. It worked perfectly and I would use it again and again. I quartered each tomato (it is about the size of a pingpong ball) and cubed the mozzarella into 1/2" cubes. Alex and I almost ate the whole thing! I loved it on garlic bread and by itself. This is definitely a repeat, especially while the campari tomatoes are on sale. If i was still in Orlando, I would definitely go to the Winter Park farmer's market every Saturday to buy the heirloom tomatoes to make this salad every week. They are also wonderful and come in MANY different colors, purple, yellow, orange, green.