ArcaMax

What to do with all those tomatoes...

When you grow a garden, you know what it’s like when the tomatoes start coming in heavy and you have to figure out what to do with them. My mother used to can stewed tomatoes. It took her one long weekend, but we had enough for the whole winter.

I had an even worse problem than tomatoes one year with zucchini. When those things ripen, they start taking over the yard! They can get the size of footballs in no time flat. That summer lead me to design a recipe for zucchini lasagna. This was back in the late 70s before zucchini lasagna became a “thing.” I made zucchini lasagna for my family, my friends or even anyone at the office who would take a casserole home.

Now that I live in the mid-South, I am trying to learn more and more about the cooking here...

Read more at PlanZDiet.com

Creamy Tomato Basil Tortellini

This is, hands down, my favorite new dish in 2024. Yes it’s a pasta dish but you can splurge once in awhile as long as you don’t eat too much of the pasta. The trick with this one is to get a lot of satisfaction out of the zucchini, the lovely tomato sauce and the basil. I only eat six or seven tortellini blobs and I cut them in half as I eat them. That makes them last longer and you feel like you got to eat more of them.

Ingredients:

9 oz package of cheese tortellini, refrigerated (the fresh kind). Truthfully you could use other flavors of tortellini for this dish too. I just have stuck to the cheese so far.
2 cups of zucchini chunks. Mine are about half-inch square. I like the bite.
2 cups of juicy tomatoes, chopped
½ cup of basil, sliced julienne-style (narrow strips)
¼ cup of cream
2 Tbs of sour cream. My tablespoons are rather heaping
¼ cup of mozzarella cheese. Shreds. I use the “melty” one
2 Tbl of olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced. I use jar garlic.
Grated sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Prep the veggies and heat a large sauté pan to medium-high.

Cook the chopped tomatoes with the olive oil in the pan for two to three minutes. It will cook down and you end up with a chunky tomato sauce. Stir as it cooks.

I cook my tortellini in a pot of boiling water. Just follow the directions on the package and then drain. Each brand specifies different cooking times so follow their lead.

In the pan with the tomatoes, add the zucchini and garlic. Add the cream and the sour cream. This will become your creamy sauce. Stir and cook until zucchini is cooked to your liking. I like mine to still have some bite so this only takes a few minutes. Stir in your drained tortellini.

After one to two minutes add the mozzarella and the basil. Stir it all up. Taste test and add the sea salt and pepper to your liking.

Serve immediately. This is nice with a Caesar salad. I just use a kit bag these days and it works out great.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola