2LC: Zucchini, basil & almond pasta

I’m not really a big fan of vegetables. I have no clue why but I just hate it. I only like veggies I like, for example spinach, carrots, peas, water spinach, cucumber and some more. Not much, really. But even that I need to eat it as a side dish to a fish or other types of meat. No salad or something similar. Since I don’t like it, I only know the shape or the taste of the veggies I like. So when Ridha suggested to use Zucchini as the main ingredient for this month 2LC’s Challenge, I just agreed. I thought “why not, I already tried it couple of times when mother in law made smörgåstårta, at least I know I will like it“.

So I went to the supermarket, straight to the vegetables area, took a cucumber and walked away. But then I realized that the shape was different from the picture on the 2LC’s site. I looked again to the sign above the cucumber, of course it didn’t say zucchini on it. Wait a second, so it’s not the same thing? I looked around the area and finally found the real zucchini right across it. That was the time when I thought “omg!“. Seriously, all this time I thought zucchini and cucumber were the exact same thing and only have different name. Doh! -___-”

Anyway, I looked around some recipes. Found few cake recipes using zucchini but then I felt so lazy to even look at the ingredients. In the end I decided to try this recipe instead.

• 175 g pasta ( I used farfalle pasta)
• 2 tbsp toasted blanched almonds ( I used chopped almond)
• 2 small or 1 medium zucchini
• 2 garlic clove – crushed
• 4 tea spoons basil powder
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 3 rounded tbsp grated Parmesan (or vegetarian alternative)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper

How to:

• Cook the pasta according to the package in a salted water.
• Heat the oil and cook the zucchini until it got soft. Add the garlic and two tea spoons of basil powder. Mix well.
• Drain the pasta and toss it in to the pan. Add the almond, Parmesan, rest of the basil, salt, pepper and the lemon juice. Mix everything well together.
• Serve with extra Parmesan on top.

In a way, this pasta dish tasted so much like an aglio olio pasta with the combination of Parmesan, garlic and olive oil. Only different it had were the strong basil flavor and the almond and zucchini in it. As expected I didn’t like the zucchini. It was too sour for my taste and I had no idea how to get rid the sourness out of it. My husband said that it was OK at first, but then he change his mind and said it tasted a lot better without the zucchini.. Sigh. All in all, not really my favorite dish but that’s the whole point of trying new stuff right? Might not like it in the end, but at least I’ve tried it. And the most important thing… I finished the challenge. ^__^

BTW, any suggestion to get rid the sourness of the zucchini? or is it supposed to be like that?

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