Vegetable pasta in herbal oil - based on zuchinni

A side dish of vegetable pasta - Max M Rasmussen

you don't have to use plain old pasta as an accompaniment to your food. If you have a julienne tool, or little bit of knife handling skills, you can create a side dish with much more flavor. Various vegetables cut into long thin strips, with plenty of olive oil, garlic and herbs, taste far better than pasta and it's easy to make.

Ingredients

4 servings

herbal oil

½ cup (1 dl) Virgin olive olie
2 cloves of garlic
1 oz (15 g) of Sage (or other fresh herb)

pasta

2½ oz (75 g) peppers
2½ oz (75 g) carrot
2½ oz (200 g) squash / zuchinni
2 oz (50 g) pea sprouts
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Method

Cut the garlic into small cubes.

Cut the herbs in approx. 1/4 inch (½ cm) wide strips.

Cut the vegetables into strips very thin strips. It is easiest with a julienne tool. It is more fun the longer they are, but length is not an absolute requirement. If you don't have a julienne tool I have an article and video about knife handling that might help.

Herbal oil

Put the oil, garlic and herbs into the pan at relatively high heat. Fry until the herbs are crisp but not black.

The pasta

First add the hard vegetables into the pan with the herbal oil. Fry until they start to bend. When I say "hard vegetables" I mean those that it takes the longest time to cook. Especially root vegetables.

Add the squash. Continue until it gets elastic and can be bend too.

Add the soft vegetables. Mainly sprouts and green leaved ones.

Fry until they too are soft.

Add salt.

Once all the vegetables are roughly equally soft and pliable The dish is finished. It should take approx. 10 minutes in total from the start. The vegetables are not supposed to be browned. They should be slightly al dente.

So the vegetables should therefore only be so soft that they barely can bend. Like pasta. They should be slightly raw in the middle. It provides a greater variety of flavor and "mouthfeel".

Notes

It is not very important what vegetables you use. Just to use approx. 10-14 oz (400-500 g) total, and of a sort than can be cut into fairly uniform strips, so that they will have the same consistency.

Other options include pastinak, celeriac root, celery, leek. Even firm fruit.

Actually I often make it using only 2 zucchinis and no other vegetables.

However, it is a good idea to base it upon, around 50% squash, as it provides a good consistency and retains the flavor of the herbal oil.

I like sage, but you can easily use fresh tarragon, oregano, thyme, rosemary, etc., instead. You can also mix different herbs.

You can also throw a handful of pine nuts or other nuts in at the beginning, along with the herbal oil for an even better taste.

Grated Parmesan or other cheese as a final topping makes the dish even better.

You can use this dish for anything that you would normally use pasta for. You would just have to get used to the fact that it tastes of quite a bit more :-D