Summer zucchini bolognese

Summer zucchini bolognese

zucchini bolognese portion

Forgive me a bit of a basic recipe today, guys, but I do have a pretty good excuse actually. We got married yesterday and my head is still in a bit of a haze 🙂 . We had an amazing day – thank you for all your well wishes we received across all our social media.

The day was really perfect, with plenty of things we care about and none of the things that do not matter to us in the slightest…There was almost zero stress involved, an approach that we consciously adopted from the outset, although we did possibly take our ‘let’s play it by ear’ attitude to the extreme when we did not think to preorder flowers. So 30 minutes before the ceremony, we ended up walking to (including climbing the highest and wonkiest steps in the Bristol Old Town in high heels) three local florists asking if they can possibly make us a wedding bouquet, like NOW. Things were not looking good initially, but we got third time lucky and did walk away with a beautiful bunch of flowers in the end.

The ceremony itself was a mixture of emotions. There was uncontrollable sobbing (me, of course!!) and lots of laughter. We wrote our own vows and handed them over to the registrar at the beginning of the ceremony so that she can help us say them back to each other. As they seemed fairy conventional, she didn’t bother reading through them beforehand, so it took her by surprise when halfway through she discovered that we decided not to keep the occasion too solemn. We are lucky to share a similar sense of humor (most of the time…) so we thought it would be nice for the vows to reflect that. We did not anticipate, however, that the Registrar would laugh so hard that she needed a moment to compose herself before being able to carry on.

Then Duncan decided to throw a spanner in the works by having to make a call to Australia at the end to make sure his dad’s name has been spelt correctly (to be fair to Duncan, his dad doesn’t use that name). His dad, still half asleep probably, thought it was a hoax at first so their conversation on the phone, which everybody could hear, added to the general sense of hilarity. Then as soon as we left the registry office, further hilarity ensued when our lovely witnesses decided to photograph us from two opposite directions, which meant that we ended up with lots of strange looking photos where we face away from each other and look totally confused. The photos may not have been the most professional, but I have not laughed that much in a very long time.

After the ceremony, we went out for pizza, coffee and cake, chatted and chased after our friend’s toddler who had way more energy than all of us put together. With Bristol looking gorgeous in the summer sunshine and a couple of really close friends who had known us both for a long time and were able to share this special moment with us, it was truly a perfect and ‘very us’ day!

So because I have had so much going on lately, today’s recipe is dead simple and something I often make when I have way too much zucchini to use up. It’s easy to make, light and filling at the same time, with a gentle chilli kick, sweetness from red pepper, saltiness from capers and crunch from pan-toasted walnuts.

zucchini bolognese ingredients

zucchini bolognese pan

zucchini bolognese lunch

serves
2-3
PREP
15 min
COOKING
45 min
serves
2-3
PREPARATION
15 min
COOKING
45 min
INGREDIENTS
SAUCE

  • 2 tbsp / 30 ml olive oil
  • ½ medium onion, finely diced
  • 3 ripe medium tomatoes OR 400 g / 14 oz can quality chopped tomatoes
  • 2 large garlic cloves, finely diced
  • 1 Romano pepper, finely diced
  • ¼ tsp grated nutmeg
  • ¼ tsp smoked paprika
  • a pinch of chilli flakes, adjust to taste
  • a pinch of dry thyme, adjust to taste
  • 1 courgette or small zucchini (about 150 g / 5 oz), coarsely grated
  • salt, adjust to taste
  • black pepper, adjust to taste

REMAINING INGREDIENTS

  • chopped capers, to garnish
  • dry-roasted walnuts or sunflower seeds, roughly chopped, to garnish
  • 200 g dry pasta (GF if required), cooked
METHOD
  1. Gently heat up the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add the diced onion and sauté on a low heat until translucent, stirring frequently.
  2. Meanwhile, if using fresh tomatoes, remove the skins by making a shallow cris-cross incision at the top of each tomato and plunging them into a pot with boiling water for a few seconds. Chop the peeled tomatoes quite finely.
  3. Add chopped garlic to the onion and sauté for another 2-3 minutes. Finally add the diced red pepper. Sauté, stirring frequently, for another 5 minutes or so.
  4. Coat the onion / garlic / pepper mixture in nutmeg, smoked paprika, chilli flakes and dry thyme.
  5. Add the tomatoes and about a cup (240 ml) of liquid (water or stock + a splash of wine works well too).
  6. Simmer on a medium heat until the tomatoes fully break down and all of the excess moisture cooks out. If the sauce gets dry, but the tomatoes are still very chunky, add a bit more liquid and carry on simmering. Remember to give the sauce a good stir from time to time.
  7. Once the sauce has reduced, season and add grated zucchini. Simmer the sauce with the zucchini for another 5-10 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning – I like to under-season slightly and top my pasta with chopped capers at the end (which adds a bit more saltiness).
  8. Stir the cooked pasta into the sauce, top with chopped walnuts and capers.
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NUTRITIONAL INFO
calories
241
12%
sugars
7 g
7%
fats
11 g
15%
saturates
2 g
8%
proteins
6 g
12%
carbs
31 g
12%
*per serving
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5.0
5 reviews, 7 comments
REVIEWS & QUESTIONS
Julia:
Just wanted to say that I found this recipe on pintrest and it end up being my birthday dinner! By the way congratulations on your marriage!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Great to hear, Julia! Thank you and happy b'day to you!! x Ania
Cristina:
It was delicious!!!!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thank you, Cristina! That's so lovely to hear! Ania
Sue:
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Can't believe you posted to your blog the day after your wedding . :-) That is dedication!
I just found my way to your blog via Apartment Therapy. GREAT WORK YOU ARE DOING HERE!
    Ania
    Ania:
    hahahaha, yes, I did, but to be fair the wedding was very low-key so we didn't celebrate for days on end ;) Thank you, Sue! x
Cristina:
So... we found out your website by following a pin on Instagram and now we just basically trust everything you post! We decided to become vegan very slowly starting from home and thank to you we're already out os any animal product at home.. I even struggle to think of any recipe that involves animal products now.. and I'm Italian! that's another thing... I'm so picky with pasta and italian recipes.. but yours are just amazing! I'm very thankful for your work you're absolutely amazing. We're going to try this recipe tonight, although I already know it will be a success!! Thank you
    Ania
    Ania:
    Aw, thank you sooo much, Cristina! That's so nice to hear - you made my evening!!! Hope this pasta hits the spot too!! Baci :) Ania
Pamela Anne Johnson:
Congratulations on your marriage! <3
Thanks for all your fantastic recipes!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks so much, Pamela! And you are so very welcome! Ania
Mike Blair:
First of all congratulations. Secondly a well timed recipe as we have a glut of courgettes, all this sun and the plants havve gone crazy. Lookinging forwarding to trying this out!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks so much! And I am pleased to hear you are thinking of making this dish! Hope you'll enjoy it! Ania
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