This week for the forty-seventh recipe I've made for Thirty Minute Thursdays, cooking our way through Giuliano Hazan's Thirty Minute Pasta book, I made Fusilli alle Zucchine e Mentuccia (Fusilli with Zucchini and Mint) on page 79.
The ingredient list: onion, olive oil, salt, garlic, parsley, zucchini, mint, basil, and fusilli.
This is zucchini season...probably everyone in America is aware of this event each year as zucchinis have a way of producing fast and furiously each summer, asserting themselves in such a way that cooks everywhere are busy coming up with new and inventive ways to cook or bake with zucchini. At the end of zucchini season there is a sigh of relief as I am sure I can't make or eat one more zucchini dish. Maybe. Maybe with this simple recipe I can be happy the rest of zucchini season with just this! It's so simple, so quick, and so delicious.
This recipe uses just a few ingredients (an economical dish certainly, especially if you grow your own herbs as I do) that combine in a most wonderful way to give you a flavorful pasta dish that leaves you wanting just one more bite, please. I was skeptical of the mint in this recipe, but it is a small amount and it really did go nicely with the other flavors, so while I am usually not thrilled with mint in savory dishes, I was very happy with this one. Definitely a repeat and definitely happening many more times this zucchini season. I have plans to use up some leftover chorizo with this recipe this weekend, it feels like they would be a very fine match.
If you wish to see what the others made (we each choose a recipe from the book that fits in with our family's meal plan that week), click on their names to link to their 30 Minute Thursdays post: Margaret, Glennis, Peggy, and Chaya. If you'd like to join in, let us know by leaving a comment in the comment section here, we'd love to have you join us.