Yesterday I was throwing together various ingredients from my kitchen to make dinner, and it turned out so amazingly well that I just had to share! Here’s what you will need: portabella mushrooms, zucchini, fresh basil, any sort of small pasta (not fettucine, linguine, etc.), Italian salad dressing, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste.
My dad makes these amazing marinated portabella mushrooms on the grill in the summer time, and I was craving them the other day. I cut the stem off of three portabella mushrooms and put them in a plastic Ziplock bag with about a half of a cup of Italian salad dressing. I used Newman’s Own Light Italian, but you could use any sort of vinegar-based dressing (needs the acid for the marinade). Then I just stuck them in my refrigerator! I actually left them there for over three days…oops. Originally I was planning on just cooking them in a sauté pan like you would a hamburger patty, but by the time the weekend rolled around, I had some produce I needed to use up.
So I diced up a zucchini, and sautéed it in olive oil and some ground black pepper. Then I took out the marinated mushrooms and diced them into bit-sized chunks. Actually, they were a little bit bigger than they could have been, but oh well! I added everything to the sauté pan.
I also had a half of a bag of whole wheat chiocciole pasta to use up.
I also had some fresh basil that was getting a little wilty, so I sliced up the remainder of that.
Then I mixed the vegetable mixture together with the noodles, added some garlic powder and black pepper and the basil. It turned out so good! I think because I marinated the mushrooms for so long, they had a really strong flavor (in a good way), so the rest of the dish didn’t need really a lot of other ingredients. Although I do think that some feta cheese crumbles might be a nice addition! (But mainly because I think that almost all dishes taste better with cheese…)
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I love recipes invented out of … well, necessity. The necessity to use up food because throwing it away would be bad karma. It’s amazing that you still had the time – and discipline – to actually snap pictures while cooking!
That looks good and I love your new camera lens! Glad you’re feeling better and up to cooking.
Just wanted to let you know I’m having a Valentines giveaway on my blog so please be sure to drop by and enter! ;-)
Dianne! I have been having computer troubles and haven’t been able to check my blog in weeks – so bummed I missed your giveaway! I will be posting – and checking out my favorite blogs! – more regularly now :)
That looks great!
BTW, it’s been forever since I’ve ready ANY blogs – I took a little break from mine, but I’m back now. Looks like you’ve had all kinds of fun changes! Hope everything is going well!