Zucchini Spaghetti ala Tomato Pesto

Thoughts & Inspiration

This is a great quick weeknight dinner.  I got home pretty late one evening after work and wanted to make something easy!  I used pre-made sauces and whipped this together!  It would be even more delicious if you had the time to make the red sauce and the pesto fresh!

If you aren't into the spiralized zucchini, you can obviously sub out the zucchini for real pasta!!!

Serves 3

25 minutes

Ingredients

2 medium thickness zucchinis, spiralized (or julienned into long strips on a mandolin)
1 tsp olive oil 
5 shiitake mushrooms, cut chunky
1 garlic clove, chopped 
1/2 Japanese eggplant, peeled and diced
 1/4 yellow squash, diced 
1 cup favorite pasta sauce  
2 Tbsp pesto 
Crushed red pepper to taste

Optional Ingredients 
A couple shaving of either Parmesan or my choice which is a dollop of Mascarpone cheese!

Heat a pan and sauté mushrooms with olive oil of medium heat for about 3-4 minutes.  Next, add garlic, eggplant and squash and sauté for an additional 3-4 minutes.  Add tomato sauce, pesto and crushed red pepper and bring to a simmer. Once the sauce is heated through, add zucchini (or real pasta) to pan and mix with tongs lifting zucchini strands to combine with sauce.  Cook for 2-3 minutes for a more al dente texture, or 4-5 minutes for a softer spaghetti texture.  

Garnish with a few shaves of Parmesan, a dollop of mascarpone cheese or do what I did and add a little of both!!!  Mmmmmm!!!

Here is what I used: