Making Zucchini The Star

Click on photo to enlarge

Zucchini Ribbons
This is a delicious vegetable dish to have as a main course or as a side dish. It only takes about 20 minutes to put this together. It's a winner!

Ingredients:

4 whole roma tomatoes, diced

2 whole zucchini
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
4 whole basil leaves (cut into thin ribbons "chiffonade")
salt and pepper, to taste

Procedure:
Cut the roma tomatoes into 1/4" dice, then set aside.

Give the fresh zucchini a rinse, then cut the ends off and discard them. Leaving the green skin on the zucchini, run a vegetable peeler down the length of each zucchini creating long thin ribbons of zucchini. It is important to buy thin zucchini so that they are not too fat, otherwise you will have a hard time getting them through the peeler. Another alternative is to run them through a mandoline.

Melt the butter and olive oil together in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. When the butter is melted, add the minced garlic and cook for just 1 minute. 

Add the cut zucchini and gently toss around in the pan for 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. 

Add the diced fresh tomatoes and parmesan cheese, then toss to heat everything up. The key is just to cook it all very quickly so the zucchini does not get soggy and the tomatoes and Parmesan just get heated.

Top the plated Zucchini ribbons with the thinly sliced basil leaves. Serve within a few minutes, before the zucchini get too soft!

Makes 4 servings