Julienned Zucchini “Spaghetti” with Quick Sausage, Tomato, and Basil Sauce

Categories: ***, Faves, JULY2012, SBF, Summer, Tomatoes, Zucchini

Ingredients

• 10 oz. lowfat turkey Italian sausage, hot or mild (about 3 links if you're using that type)
• 2-3 T olive oil, divided (if you use a nonstick pan you'll need less oil)
• 3 large cloves of garlic, minced + 3 more to season the oil
• pinch hot pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can petite dice tomatoes with juice (or use 2 generous cups chopped fresh tomatoes)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp. ground fennel (or less if you're not crazy about fennel)
• 2 medium sized zucchini (9-10 inches long) cut into thin strands with a Julienne Cutter or a Mandoline Slicer
• 5 T chopped fresh basil
• 2 T chopped fresh parsley
• 1 T chopped fresh oregano
• (Or use any combination of chopped fresh herbs that you have. See after the recipe for information about using dried herbs.)
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste (for seasoning zucchini)
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving if desired

Directions

1. Heat about 1 T olive oil in a heavy frying pan, then add turkey sausage (squeezed out of the links if needed) and use a turner to break the sausage apart and cook until it’s lightly browned, about 5 minutes. When the sausage is browned, push it over to the side and add 2 tsp. olive oil, 3 cloves of minced garlic, and hot pepper flakes if using. Let them cook about a minute, then mix the garlic into the sausage and add the tomatoes, water, and ground fennel (and dried herbs if using.) Turn heat down to low and let the sauce simmer while you prep other ingredients.

2. Use a Julienne Cutter or Mandoline slicer to cut the spaghetti into long strands. (Cut off the ends, wash and dry the zucchini, and then cut into julienne strands. You can also do this with a knife if you’re patient.) Wash and dry the herbs and finely chop.

3. In about 15 minutes, or when the water has mostly cooked out of the sauce, stir in the chopped herbs and let sauce simmer about 5 minutes more. Heat about 1 T olive oil over high heat in a very large frying pan, add 3 whole garlic cloves and saute until you can start to smell garlic, then remove and discard the garlic. Immediately add the zucchini strands to the hot pan and cook stirring a few times just until the zucchini is heated through, about 2 minutes. Season the cooked zucchini with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Add the sauce to the zucchini and gently combine. Serve hot, with freshly grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

4. Using Dried Herbs:

5. You can certainly make this sauce with dried herbs, although I think fresh herbs, especially fresh basil, really add a lot of flavor here. If you only have dried herbs, I’d add them when you add the tomatoes and fennel and add a couple of tablespoons more water. I would use about 1 T dried basil, 1 tsp. dried parsley, and 1/2 tsp. dried oregano. You can of course use a combination of fresh and dried herbs as well, just add the dried herbs at the beginning and the fresh ones at the end.

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