Zucchini Pesto Bites with Goat Cheese

Thoughts & Inspiration

This was something I tried for my dinner party.  It is super easy and a fun little bite.  I used store bought pesto to make this a quicker recipe, but obviously fresh homemade pesto is always better!

Ingredients
1 Tbsp of olive oil
1-2 zucchinis, sliced
Pesto (homemade or store bought)
Goat cheese crumbles

Trim the ends off the zucchini.  On a mandoline or using a very sharp knife, cut the zucchini into medium thickness slices, approximately 1/4-1/2 inch thick (you want to have approximately 24 slices of each, to create 12 bites).

Heat a grill pan and add olive oil.  Place zucchini slices onto pan and grill on medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes.  Flip all slices over and grill for 1-2 more minutes.  Remove slices from heat and place onto a dish and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Arrange zucchini as follows onto a serving dish:
Zucchini slice, followed by a dollop of pesto, zucchini slice and finally a small crumble of goat cheese.  

This dish can be served at room temperature.

Variation:  Feta cheese crumbles instead of goat cheese.

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: