The garden tomato, cucumber, and zucchini glut is upon us, and I am driven to distraction figuring out ways to keep up with the produce as it comes in.
My favorite way to prepare the tomatoes is to make a batch of marinara sauce using this recipe from my blog. This is a quick sauce that can be made in the time it takes to boil a pot of water and cook a pound of pasta. The sauce freezes well and is a delight to eat in the middle of winter.
For the cukes, I’ve been making refrigerator pickles. My family adores them. They are especially delicious served over BBQ or hamburgers.
For the abundance of zucchini and summer squash, I’ve been experimenting with a Kitchen Aid spiralizer, and by experimenting, I mean having fun making oodles of zoodles at warp speed. I spiralized all these varieties of squash in a few minutes
into this:
I’ve spiralized beautiful red and gold beets to add to salads.
I’ve spiralized apples for apple pie.
I’ve spiralized zucchini to make lasagna-sized noodles.
Even at The Nashville Food Project, where I am a volunteer chef, the prep team now spiralizes much of the thousands of pounds of donated zucchini to make fantastic meals like this one.
Spiralizers:
My first spiralizer was this simple-to-use handheld OXO device.
Later, I advanced to this deluxe Kitchen Aid attachment.
Ingredients:
1 batch of Fresh Marinara Sauce
3 pounds of zucchini (or summer squash)
Reggiano Parmesan cheese
Instructions:
Prepare the marinara sauce as described in the blog post.
Wash zucchini or squash and cut off blossom tip and stem. Use a spiralizer to create noodles.
Add spiralized noodles to hot marinara sauce in increments. Stir in more noodles as the each batch softens and collapses into the sauce.
Cook zoodles for about 5 minutes.
Sprinkle with Reggiano Parmesan cheese and serve.
Other Recipes Using Summer Vegetables and Fruit:
Roasted Ratatouille
Roasted Roma Tomatoes
Roasted Beet Salad
String Bean Salad
Amazingly Delicious Sautéed Carrots
Fresh Marinara Sauce with Pasta
Rachelle’s Italian Sausage, Onions, and Peppers
Yummy Shepherd’s Pie
50 Ways to Make a Frittata
Ellen’s Most Moist Zucchini Bread
How to Make Grape Jelly (and grow the grapes)
Very Berry Clafoutis
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© 2014-2017 Judy Wright. All rights reserved. Photos and text may only be used with written consent.
@judyschickens 
Your blog never disappoints! Love you so much.
Thanks, Tallu! That makes me smile. Love you, too.
Huzzah! Great to see you posting again, Judy! I wondered if you were off traveling, but maybe you’ve just been caught up in spiralizing 🙂 It does look like fun, plus a great way to serve/eat lots of summer squash.
Thank you, Quinn. I was just getting ready to turn 60. Done 🙂 Plus, growing vegetables, harvesting, and finding creative ways to prepare veggies, all of which I thoroughly enjoy doing, takes up a good deal of my day. As for the spiralizer — as Maslow said, “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” That’s how I am with the spiralizer and all the produce coming out of my garden these days! Hope you are well.
Happy Birthday, if a bit belated!
We had fresh marinara and spiralized zucchini for dinner. I have that OXO spiralizer, but decided to try my vegetable sharpener (pencil-sharpener style) for wider zoodles. On reflection, I think the skinny OXO zoodles are easier to eat! But it was all delicious. Thanks for dinner inspiration!
Thanks! So good to hear from you! I’m with you, I like the skinnier noodles slathered with marinara sauce. My tomato crop was so good this year, I was able to freeze 20 quarts of marinara.That’s 20 times I’ll be able to think about fresh tomatoes during the winter!