Zucchini Noodle Baked Ziti With Romesco Food

ZUCCHINI BAKED ZITI RECIPE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13 casserole dish and set aside.
• Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add frozen zucchini spirals.
• Cover and let cook, 6 minutes.
• Remove the lid and flip. Season with salt and pepper and cook an additional 3 minutes.
• Drain the zucchini in a mesh sieve.
• Meanwhile, heat a medium sauce pan over medium high heat.
• Add the onion and ground beef. Season with salt and pepper.
• Cook until browned, about 6 minutes.
• Mix in the minced garlic and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds.
• Drain the fat from the ground beef and mix in the marinera sauce.
• Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer 10 minutes.
• Once meat sauce is cooked, start building your baked ziti dish.
• Start with half of the cooked zucchini spirals in an even layer in the prepared casserole dish.
• Spread half of the sauce over the zucchini and sprinkle with 1/2 cup mozzerella and 1/2 cup cheddar cheese.
• Repeat with reamining zucchini, sauce, and cheese.
• Sprinkle baked ziti with parmesan cheese.
• Place casserole in oven and bake, uncovered for 30 minutes, until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling around the edges.

ZUCCHINI NOODLE BAKED ZITI WITH ROMESCO

Steps:

• Boil water and add over cashews to completely cover, let sit for 30 minutes. In the meantime, make the romesco meat sauce.
• Using tongs, carefully, lightly roast each sweet pepper over an open flame on your stove top. Rotate the pepper, just for a couple of minutes for each pepper until you have light blisters. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
• Once cool enough to handle, roughly chop peppers (discard the inside and seeds), toss the peppers in your food processor with the rest of the ingredients and pulse until well blended into a sauce. Set aside.
• To a skillet, add olive oil with chopped onions over medium heat and lightly cook until translucent for a few minutes, then add in the ground meat breaking it up with a spoon. Cook, while mixing well and adding in seasonings until the meat, is cooked (no red/raw meat is showing anymore).
• Add romesco sauce over top of meat and reduce heat to low until well coated and slightly bubbling.
• Roughly chop spiralized zoodles (I made mine into the large ribbon-like pieces, but any shape will do!), into bite-size pieces so it's less stringy. Add to pan and with tongs, coat completely in the romesco meat sauce. Turn heat off.
• Finish up the cheese by draining cashews, and adding them to a blender or food processor with lemon, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt and egg. Mix until well blended - it's okay if it's very loose, it will stiffen up in the oven.
• Time to assemble!
• Add a layer of the romesco meat sauce with coated zoodles to the bottom of your baking dish (8-inch should work well!)
• Then pour in a layer of the cashew cheese. Repeat this with the cashew cheese left last on top of the entire ziti.
• Bake for 20-30 minutes, optionally add more nutritional yeast to the top mid-way and broil for a little more color for just a minute or two - watch carefully. Serve!

ZUCCHINI NOODLE CASSEROLE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
• Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, saute enough zucchini to fit in the skillet with 1 teaspoon garlic until zucchini is slightly browned and softened, 3 to 6 minutes. Repeat with remaining olive oil, zucchini, and garlic. Transfer cooked zucchini mixture to a 9x13-inch baking dish.
• Whisk marinara sauce, yogurt, Italian seasoning, salt, and black pepper together in a saucepan over low heat; cook and stir until sauce is warmed through, 5 to 10 minutes. Pour sauce over zucchini mixture in the baking dish. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese and a pinch of Italian seasoning over the top.
• Bake in the preheated oven until cheese is bubbling, 20 to 30 minutes.

ZUCCHINI BAKED ZITI

Steps:

• Boil water and cook the ziti according to package directions.
• While it is cooking, follow next steps.
• When it is done, drain and set aside in large bowl (or pot).
• Slice the zucchini.
• In a skillet, heat 1/4 cup olive oil and fry the zucchini until browned on both sides.
• Take them out of the pan and drain on paper towels.
• In a saucepan, heat the remaining 1/4 cup oil.
• Add the onion and cook until translucent.
• Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes, basil, parsley, salt and pepper.
• Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Pour into large bowl with the drained ziti.
• Rub two shallow baking pans with olive oil.
• In the first pan, put 1/4 of the ziti, then 1/4 of the zucchini.
• Dot with butter, add 1/4 of the mozzarella and then 1/4 of the Parmesan.
• Repeat the layers in that pan.
• Repeat above steps for second pan.
• Bake pans in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes until the top is brown and crusty.
• OR BAKE ONE, FREEZE ONE!
• OR FREEZE BOTH: Cover the other pan tightly with aluminum foil and freeze.
• Defrost before baking.

ZUCCHINI 'NOODLES'

Steps:

• Cut zucchini into thin, noodle-like strips (a mandoline works well for this). Toss with the 2 teaspoons salt, and place in a colander to drain for 30 minutes.
• Bring a pot of water to boil. Add zucchini; cook for one minute. Drain; rinse immediately with cold water to stop cooking.
• Heat margarine in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add zucchini and garlic; cook and stir until just tender, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.