Mushroom Zucchini Pasta

Our journey begins on a dark, stormy night.

I had maybe about 20 minutes to make a meal that I can eat for dinner several nights this week before I have to go back to my desk and ponder the fine points of my dissertation hypothesis.  So I needed to keep things simple.

Mushrooms.  Nothing is as simple as fungus. 

Angel hair pasta and zucchini. 

Two more ingredients that are also simple and easy, but a little less commonplace in my pantry: capers...

And a shallot.

Wanna see what I can come up with in 20 minutes with these ingredients?  Read on. 

Ingredients (4-5 servings):
-4 servings of angel hair pasta, cooked
-1 shallot
-1 zucchini
-2 cups chopped mushrooms
-2 tbsps capers
-Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

1.  Boil pasta.  No picture needed.

2.  Chop shallots.  Shallots are basically (in my humble, non-expert opinion) small onions with a sweeter taste.  They're so cute!

I bought these ready-to-use mushrooms.  It's not that i don't like chopping mushrooms.  It's actually because I have this internal conflict when it comes to cleaning mushrooms.  I know you're supposed to wipe mushrooms with a damp cloth instead of washing them in water, but I am my mother's daughter, and I want to scrub the h out of them to get rid of every trace of dirt.  But that makes them kinda rubbery.  So, to avoid this internal tension and potential fight I might have with myself, I buy the pre-sliced kind when i can. 

And that's more than you ever wanted to know about Sunny and Mushrooms.

Here's the zucchini.  I have no problems with zucchini.

Cook shallots in some oil on medium heat. 

3.  When shallots are translucent and super fragrant...

add mushrooms and saute them until brown.

4.  Add zucchini.  By this time, the pasta should be well on its way. 

5.  Once zucchini is fairly cooked through, add salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste.  My taste is that I add a lot of pepper and garlic.  Just sayin'.  Then add starchy pasta cooking water to the pan with the veggies. 

6.  Okay, caper time! 

Capers are usually packaged in some sort of brine.  Add the yummy, briny capers to the sauteed veggies.  Capers have like 5 calories per serving. 

Here they go!

7.  Drain pasta and toss it straight into the pan. 

Toss and serve!

Yum!  Wasn't that super easy?  It's essentially 5 ingredients that you can find for an affordable price. 

And although the idea is simple, the sweet shallots and salty capers add quite a bit of flavor to what might otherwise be a pretty boring dish.

Delicious!  I'm excited that now, after spending only 20 minutes on this lonely, rainy night, I have dinner for the next 4 days set!  Can we say, freakin' score?  

Have a great week!

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.