Zucchini Pappardelle with Sweet Corn Sauce

It’s the season of engagements. In just the last couple of weeks, two new announcements of engagements have come through the phone lines, and the Facebook lines. As soon as I hear engagement I immediately start thinking about the wedding itself, and then about the dress, the flowers, and the food. I can’t help it, I think I was genetically predeterminer to have an infatuation with weddings.

When I was about 8, my family and I had driven down to Washington, D.C. to visit my Auntie M. She had a beautiful art deco apartment on upper Connecticut with a claw foot tub and Laura Ashley wallpaper. This particular visit, there was a veil hanging on the door of her armoire. It had the short piece for pulling in front of your face, and spiky flowered beads that gave it some height and texture before the big poof; I was in love, it was also the early ’90s.

I’m not sure if I was more excited to try it on or that she was going to get married, and that I would of course be in the wedding. To my both dismay and delight I found out that she wasn’t getting married, but instead had actually made this beautiful headdress for me. I think that I wore that veil for the rest of the day, and it is, in fact, still hanging in my childhood bedroom closet.

The other beautiful part of this engagement season is that zucchini and fresh corn are in absolute abundance. Yesterday, at the grocery store, E. and I could be found shucking corn and picking out the most beautiful zucchini I have ever seen. Not knowing what it was going to turn into, I was determined to try something a little different.

Upon returning home, I decided to try out making zucchini ribbons. This requires a steady hand and a vegetable peeler. I took one super large zucchini and carefully made very thin strips of the vegetable for what resulted in a large bowl full of a pappardelle style “pasta.” I made a sauce of the fresh corn, a little bit of onion, some coconut milk and oregano. Once I blended it down a bit, I added in the zucchini, still raw and tossed it around over medium heat. After a few minutes, what resulted was an excellent pasta like dish. Pleasantly surprised, E. polished off his plate, and we made a plan to have more later this week. Stay tuned for zucchini pappardelle, round 2. By the way, this is an excellent Meatless Monday dish!

Ingredients

1 pound of zucchini, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups of sweet corn
1/4 cup of onion, diced
1 cup of light coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano
1 tablespoon of olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

With a mandolin or a vegetable peeler, thinly slice the zucchini down to the seeds. Set the zucchini ribbons aside, and discard the seeded center.

In a large saucepan, combine the olive oil, onion and corn together. Saute until tender, about 10 minutes.

Add in the coconut milk, and oregano and bring to a boil. Check for seasoning.

Blend the sauce with an emersion blender until mostly smooth. It’s ok to have  some kernels whole. Add the sauce back to the sauce pan over medium heat.

Add the zucchini ribbons to the sauce and toss with some tongs until the zucchini is tender, about 5 minutes, and serve.

11. July 2011 by Zoë
Categories: Sauces and Spreads, Vegetarian | Tags: Meatless Monday | 2 comments